A Ukrainian drone strike killed five people in annexed Crimea on Tuesday night, a Kremlin-installed official said, as a surge in cross-border attacks effectively dismantled a ceasefire that Ukraine unilaterally declared earlier this week.
Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-appointed governor of Crimea, said the late-night attack targeted Dzhankoi, a town in the north of the peninsula that is home to a military airbase.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday morning that it intercepted 53 Ukrainian drones across several regions, as well as in the skies above annexed Crimea and the Black Sea. Multiple people were reported injured in attacks on Russian regions that border Ukraine.
The drone barrage came hours ahead of a Russian strike on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, where local authorities said at least four people were killed.
Ukraine called the deadly strike a violation of its May 5-6 ceasefire that it had announced in response to a separate Russian truce proposal for May 8-9, which coincides with Victory Day celebrations.
“This shows that Russia rejects peace and its fake calls for a ceasefire,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha wrote on X. “Putin only cares about military parades, not human lives.”
The Kremlin had said earlier that it would not honor the Wednesday ceasefire but still expected Ukraine to observe its proposed truce later in the week. Russia’s military warned it could strike central Kyiv if its ceasefire proposal is ignored.
On Tuesday, a rare Ukrainian strike on Russia’s republic of Chuvashia killed at least two people. Meanwhile, Russian barrages across Ukraine killed at least 17 people, according to local authorities.
The intensified fighting comes as Moscow prepares for its annual May 9 parade on Red Square, an event already scaled back due to security concerns following repeated Ukrainian drone attacks deep into Russian territory.
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