Russian attacks throughout eastern Ukraine killed at least 27 people yesterday, including 12 in one of the worst strikes so far this year, hours before the deadline for a proposal from Kyiv for an open-ended ceasefire to begin at midnight.
Russia announced a ceasefire for May 8 to 9 to coincide with commemorations of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War and a military parade in Moscow’s Red Square.
Ukraine, in response, announced a proposal for an open-ended ceasefire starting at midnight on Wednesday (2100 GMT), urging Russia to reciprocate. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said it was not an option for Russia to halt strikes for one day for its military parade while having heavily pounded Ukraine.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, writing in English on X, said: “With mere hours until Ukraine’s ceasefire proposal comes into force, Russia shows no signs of preparing to end hostilities. On the contrary, Moscow intensifies terror.”
In the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, an attack by aerial bombs and drones killed at least 12 people, Regional Governor Ivan Fedorov said on Telegram. He said 20 were injured.
Fedorov said residential buildings, a car repair service and a car wash were damaged. The attack also sparked fires at a shop and an unidentified enterprise, he added.
Reuters Television footage showed flames engulfing cars and a garage and huge clouds of black smoke billowing skyward. Medics attended to the injured, many of them covered in blood, on an adjacent street.
“A cynical strike on facilities in the city of Zaporizhzhia: four guided aerial bombs. After the hit, the enemy intentionally began attacking those locations with (Iranian-designed) Shahed drones,” Zaporizhzhia City Council Secretary Rehina Kharchenko told Reuters.
“For a very long time, State Emergency Service workers and municipal services were unable to approach the location.”
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