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Russia has declared a unilateral ceasefire with Ukraine between 8-9 May, when Moscow marks its annual World War II Victory Day commemorations and threatened a “massive missile strike” on Kyiv if Ukraine violated it.

Russian President Vladimir Putin first proposed the truce last week, during a phone call with US counterpart Donald Trump.

“In accordance with a decision of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Armed Forces, Vladimir Putin, a ceasefire has been declared from May 8–9 2026…We hope that the Ukrainian side will follow suit,” the Russian defence ministry said in a post on state-backed messaging app MAX.

“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.”

“We warn the civilian population of Kyiv and employees of foreign diplomatic missions of the need to leave the city promptly,” it added.

In a post on X on Monday night, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced his own ceasefire, that would start earlier than the one outlined by Russia, which he says has still not been officially communicated to Kyiv.

“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 Defence Ministry believes it cannot hold a parade in Moscow without Ukraine’s goodwill,” he wrote.

Russia’s defence ministry said last week that there would be no military hardware at the annual parade this year because of fears of long-range attacks by Ukrainian drones.

Monday strikes

Meanwhile, a Russian missile attack killed seven people in an eastern Ukrainian town and a separate attack left two others dead in a southern village, Kyiv said on Monday.

A Russian ballistic missile attack on the town of Merefa, outside Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv, killed seven civilians and wounded dozens, regional authorities said.

Kharkiv regional governor Oleg Synegubov first reported that five people had been killed but later said that two men had died from their wounds in hospital.

The other victims were two more men and three women, Synegubov said.

Synegubov said a two-year-old boy was among the wounded but that he was not taken to hospital.

The strike targeted “civilian infrastructure in a city located quite far from the front line,” he added.

Russian forces have focused on taking territory in the Kharkiv region, from where they were pushed back by Ukrainian forces in 2022.

Separately, the governor of the southern Zaporizhzhia region, Ivan Fedorov, said a Russian strike killed two people in the village of Vilnyansk.

“Unfortunately, a married couple was killed: a 51-year-old man and a 62-year-old woman,” Fedorov said.

He added that their 31-year-old son was wounded in the strike, along with three other people.

Vilnyansk lies close to the regional capital of Zaporizhzhia, towards which Russian forces have been grinding.

In Russia, the governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said a Ukrainian drone killed a civilian in a border area.

Gladkov said the attack wounded seven others, including a 10-year-old boy.

US-led talks on ending the conflict have been sidelined by the Iran war and deadly attacks have spiked in recent weeks.

Additional sources • AFP