On May 4, Russia and Ukraine announced they would temporarily halt fighting — but without coordinating their decisions. Russia’s Defense Ministry declared a temporary truce in honor of Victory Day, to run from May 8 through 9. President Zelensky responded by announcing that Ukraine was declaring its own truce earlier, beginning at midnight on May 6. But the fighting has not stopped, and Ukraine is accusing Russia of violating its terms and is effectively signaling that there will be no truce on May 9. Here is how events unfolded.
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Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump speak by phone. The Kremlin says Putin proposed declaring a truce for the duration of the Victory Day celebrations. Trump said the truce proposal was his own.
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Volodymyr Zelensky directs his representatives to contact Trump’s team and establish exactly what is being proposed. Ukraine’s position, he said, is a long-term ceasefire.
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The Kremlin announces that Russia will hold its fire on Victory Day regardless of whether Ukraine agrees to do the same.
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Russia’s Defense Ministry announces a two-day truce on Putin’s order, covering May 8 and 9, and warns that any Ukrainian attempt to disrupt the Victory Day celebrations will draw a massive retaliatory missile strike on central Kyiv.
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Zelensky declares a truce beginning at midnight on May 6, saying Ukraine will respond in kind from that moment. Moscow does not respond.
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The truce declared by Zelensky takes effect. Ukraine’s armed forces report that Russia struck Ukraine with three missiles and 108 strike drones overnight, and accuse Moscow of violating the truce. Russia’s Defense Ministry, for its part, says air defense forces shot down 53 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions and the Black Sea.
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Zelensky says Russia has abandoned the truce and disregarded human life.
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The Kyiv Independent, citing a senior Ukrainian official, reports that Ukraine sees no point in observing a truce on Victory Day. A source within the Ukrainian government told the BBC that Zelensky had not yet made up his mind about May 9, and that decisions were being made day by day: if Russia attacked that day, Ukraine would respond.
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Zelensky says Russian authorities are moving air defense assets toward Moscow ahead of the May 9 parade, creating additional opportunities for Ukrainian strikes. The Russian leadership, he said, is not preparing for the truce it has spoken about so much — it is more worried about its parade in Moscow than about the rest of Russia.
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