Russia launched 108 drones and three missiles into Ukraine overnight, killing at least 21 civilians and wounding 82, foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said, dismissing as "a sham" a unilateral ceasefire Kyiv had announced from midnight on May 6. Russian forces had not signed on to the truce.
Ukraine responded with what Moscow described as its second-largest aerial attack since the start of the full-scale invasion. Russia's defence ministry said 347 Ukrainian drones were destroyed over 20 regions, including Moscow, where flights were diverted from the capital's main airports for several hours.
President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of timing strikes on residential blocks in Sumy and Kharkiv to coincide with the planned start of the truce. Russia said it would not pause operations except during the May 9 Victory Day parade window it had previously offered.
Tuesday saw 27 civilians killed in earlier waves of Russian strikes, according to interior minister Ihor Klymenko, who said all of those killed were non-combatants and that 120 others had been wounded. The cumulative toll over three days now stands above 70 dead.
Energy infrastructure remained a primary target for Russian strikes, with attacks on a Naftogaz gas-processing facility in eastern Ukraine compounding shortages already exacerbated by recent damage to the country's electricity grid.
Diplomatic efforts continue at lower levels. Turkish and Saudi mediators are pressing for a confidence-building exchange of prisoners and civilian deportees, but the gap between Moscow's demands for territorial concessions and Kyiv's insistence on a return to internationally recognised borders remains wide.