Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky gave a competing ceasefire proposal to Russian President Vladimir Putin shortly after a Ukrainian drone hit a residential high-rise in Moscow.
Ukraine has drastically stepped up its long-range drone campaign against Russia this year, mostly targeting its oil infrastructure. Its attack on Monday was an anomaly, breaching the capital’s air defenses and hitting the apartment building but causing no casualties, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. The attack came just days ahead of Russia’s annual Victory Day parade in Red Square, commemorating its victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
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Putin is eager not to have Ukrainian drones hit the city at the time of the parade, an attack that would constitute a PR disaster. To mitigate this, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced a unilateral ceasefire from May 8 to 9, saying it hoped Ukraine would follow suit.
To deter Ukraine from attacking the parade, the MOD issued a specific threat, breaking with its previous practice of issuing vague threats.
“If the Kyiv regime attempts to implement its criminal plans to disrupt the celebration of the 81st anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War, the Russian Armed Forces will launch a retaliatory, massive missile strike on the centre of Kyiv,” it said.
“We warn the civilian population of Kyiv and employees of foreign diplomatic missions of the need to leave the city promptly,” the ministry said.
Zelensky gave an unconventional response, declaring its own unilateral ceasefire beginning on May 5 to 6 and saying it would abide by both if Russia also ceased fire during that period.
“We believe that human life is far more valuable than any anniversary ‘celebration,'” he said in a post on X. “In this regard, we are announcing a ceasefire regime starting at 00:00 on the night of May 5-6. In the time left until that moment, it is realistic to ensure that silence takes effect. We will act reciprocally starting from that moment.
“It is time for Russian leaders to take real steps to end their war, especially since Russia’s Defense Ministry believes it cannot hold a parade in Moscow without Ukraine’s goodwill,” Zelensky said.
Earlier in the day, Zelensky reveled in the precautions Russia was taking for its Victory Day parade, boasting in an address to leaders at the meeting of the European Political Community in Yerevan, Armenia, that it was a sign of Russian weakness.
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“This summer will be a moment when Putin decides what to do next: expand the war or move to diplomacy,” he said. “And we must push him toward diplomacy.”
Victory Day is one of the most important national holidays in modern Russia, featuring a grandiose parade to celebrate and commemorate its defeat of Hitler’s Wehrmacht in 1945. The war between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union remains the largest single war in history, with more troops engaged on the Eastern Front than every other front of World War II combined. An estimated 27 million Soviets died in the war, by far the largest share of casualties of the war.
