The Ukrainian military has violated the Victory Day ceasefire on 8,970 occasions since it took effect at midnight on Friday, including drone and artillery strikes, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
Moscow said on Friday that it had ordered all of its troops along the Ukraine front line to halt combat operations and stay at their positions.
In a statement on Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry stressed that its forces were continuing to abide by the ceasefire. By contrast, the Ukrainian military had conducted “strikes on our forces’ positions involving unmanned aerial vehicles and artillery,” military officials in Moscow reported. On top of that, a number of Russian regions, including Crimea, Bryansk Region, Belgorod Region, Kursk Region, and Moscow Region, have come under Ukrainian attacks.
According to the ministry, of the 8,970 ceasefire violations on Kiev’s part, 1,173 attacks were conducted by Ukrainian artillery, multiple launch rocket systems, mortars and tanks. The Russian military has additionally recorded a total of 7,151 enemy drone strikes.
“Ukrainian forces have carried out twelve attacks on Russian positions,” according to the statement.
Russian troops have responded in kind, launching retaliatory strikes against Ukrainian firing positions, command posts, and UAV launch sites, the Defense Ministry stated.
Earlier this week, the MOD announced a unilateral two-day ceasefire on May 8-9 to mark the 81st anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany and the end of World War II in Europe.
On Friday, US President Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that he had directly asked Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky to cease hostilities for three days, May 9-11, with both agreeing to the proposal. Trump added that Moscow and Kiev would swap 1,000 POWs each during the period.
“Hopefully, it is the beginning of the end of a very long, deadly, and hard fought War,” the US president wrote, expressing hope for a “big extension.”
Putin’s aide Yury Ushakov later confirmed that Moscow agreed to extend the ceasefire it had originally announced for May 8-9 for the period mentioned by Trump, as well as to a major prisoner exchange.