Russia intensifies strikes as Ukraine's ceasefire proposal takes effect

The strikes came in waves through Tuesday, hitting five separate regions across eastern Ukraine in what would become one of the deadliest days of the year. By evening, the count had reached at least 27 dead. In Zaporizhzhia, aerial bombs and drones tore through the city, killing at least a dozen people, according to regional governor Ivan Fedorov. Three bombs fell on Kramatorsk, a frontline city in Donetsk Region, killing six more. Dnipro absorbed another attack that killed four. And in Poltava, a strike on gas production facilities claimed five lives, with one more death spilling across the border into Kharkiv region. The timing was deliberate and pointed: these attacks unfolded just hours before midnight, when Ukraine's ceasefire proposal was set to take effect.

Kyiv had made its move first. Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha announced an open-ended ceasefire beginning at midnight Wednesday, urging Russia to match the gesture. The proposal came as a response to Moscow's own announcement of a two-day ceasefire for May 8-9, timed to coincide with Russia's commemoration of victory over Nazi Germany and a military parade planned for Red Square. Ukraine's counter-offer was meant to be more generous—no time limit, no conditions attached. Instead of reciprocating, Russia answered with one of the worst bombardments in months.

Sybiha's statement on X captured the grim arithmetic of the moment: "With mere hours until Ukraine's ceasefire proposal comes into force, Russia shows no signs of preparing to end hostilities. On the contrary, Moscow intensifies terror." The message was unmistakable. Moscow was not interested in talking. It was interested in demonstrating that it could not be pressured into negotiation through gestures of restraint.

Meanwhile, the diplomatic machinery continued grinding elsewhere. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke by telephone with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday at Lavrov's request. The state department confirmed they discussed the US-Russia relationship, the war in Ukraine, and Iran—a conversation that suggested some channel of communication remained open, even as the killing continued. On the same day, the state department approved a $373.6 million weapons package for Ukraine, including Joint Direct Attack Munitions with extended range and related equipment, with Boeing as the principal contractor. The message was equally clear: the US would keep arming Kyiv while keeping lines open to Moscow.

The violence was not one-directional. A Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian-occupied Crimean city of Dzhankoi killed five civilians, according to Sergey Aksyonov, the Moscow-installed regional head. The toll kept climbing in both directions, each strike answered by another, each proposal met with intensified fire.

In Venice, the 61st Biennale was opening to a different kind of conflict. The contemporary art show's jury had resigned over the decision to allow both Israel and Russia to maintain pavilions. The Russian pavilion would be open only during preview days through Friday, closed to the public once the biennale's six-month run began on Saturday. The decision had cost the biennale 2 million euros in EU funding over three years, a price the institution was willing to pay to maintain what it called neutrality—a position that put it at odds with the Italian government and with Ukrainian artists.

Ksenia Malykh, co-curator of the Ukrainian pavilion, rejected the framing entirely. "You can't stay neutral in these times," she said. "You can't be neutral when people are dying every day because of Russians." The Ukrainian pavilion itself was a statement of survival. It featured "The Origami Deer," a sculpture by artist Zhanna Kadryova created to replace a Soviet fighter jet that had stood in a park in Pokrovsk, in the Donbas region. Curators had evacuated the statue in 2024 when the frontline was just five kilometers away. Now it stood in Venice, a fragile paper monument to what had been lost and what remained under threat.

In the north, Finland's border guard reported that two drones suspected of violating Finnish airspace over the weekend likely originated from Ukraine. The drones had entered from the south and flown northeast toward Russian territory, their final destination unknown. The incident underscored how the war's geography had expanded, how its consequences rippled across borders, how even neutral nations found themselves drawn into its orbit. The ceasefire proposal remained unsigned, the strikes continued, and the machinery of war ground forward into another day.