KYIV: Russia and Ukraine resumed strikes on Tuesday after a three-day ceasefire expired, with Ukrainian officials reporting fresh drone attacks on Kyiv and casualties in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region.
Authorities in Ukraine said Russian strikes killed one person and wounded at least four others. In the Synelnykove area of Dnipropetrovsk, a man was killed and a woman injured, according to regional military administration head Oleksandr Ganzha. Three additional people were wounded in separate strikes across the region.
In Kyiv, head of the city’s military administration Tymur Tkachenko warned residents about incoming drones, writing on Telegram: “Enemy UAVs are currently over Kyiv. Please stay safe until the alert is cleared.”
Officials urged residents to remain in shelters as air defence systems operated in the capital.
On the Russian side, the defence ministry said its forces intercepted and destroyed 27 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones over the Belgorod, Voronezh and Rostov regions after the ceasefire ended.
US President Donald Trump had announced the three-day truce on Friday ahead of Russia’s World War II victory celebrations, saying he hoped it would mark “the beginning of the end” of the more than four-year conflict.
However, both Moscow and Kyiv accused each other of violating the ceasefire even before it expired, particularly through attacks targeting civilians.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said fighting had continued throughout the truce period.
“Today, there was no silence at the front, there was fighting. We have recorded all of this,” Zelensky said during the final hours of the ceasefire.
He also remarked that “the war in Iran is now drawing the most attention from America”.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin said it was still too early to discuss concrete details regarding the possible end of the war, despite Russian President Vladimir Putin recently suggesting that the conflict was “heading to an end”.
Putin made the remarks during a speech following Russia’s World War II victory parade on Red Square on Saturday, though he did not elaborate further and also criticised continued Western military support for Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia remained open to dialogue and welcomed ongoing efforts by the United States to support peace initiatives.
“The accumulated groundwork in terms of the peace process allows us to say that the end is drawing near. But in this context, it is not possible at the moment to speak about any specifics,” Peskov said.
He added that Russia’s “special military operation” could end “at any moment” if Ukraine made what Moscow considers the necessary decisions.
“Kyiv is well aware of the decisions that need to be made,” Peskov stated.
Russia has repeatedly demanded that Ukraine withdraw from the parts of the eastern Donbas region still under Kyiv’s control as a condition for any peace agreement, a proposal Ukraine has firmly rejected.
