Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of violating US-brokered 3-day
truce
[May 11, 2026]
Russia and Ukraine swapped accusations of breaking a U.S.-brokered
ceasefire on Sunday, with both sides claiming to have suffered
casualties in drone and artillery strikes over the past 24 hours.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia was neither
observing the truce nor “even particularly trying to,” adding there had
been no calm in front-line areas despite a lull in large-scale attacks
and pledged that Ukraine would retaliate to any aggression shown by
Moscow.
“Yesterday and today, Ukraine refrained from long-range retaliatory
actions in response to the absence of large-scale Russian attacks,”
Zelenskyy said in evening statement, stressing Ukraine's increasing
ability to hit targets far inside Russia.
“We will continue to respond in the same mirrorlike manner, and if the
Russians decide to return to full-scale warfare, our response will be
immediate and significant,” he said.
Ivan Fedorov, head of Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, said
one person was killed and three others wounded by Russian artillery and
drone attacks in the last 24 hours. Another 16 people were also wounded
in attacks across other regions of Ukraine, local officials said.
Russia's defense ministry, meanwhile, accused Kyiv of committing more
than 1,000 ceasefire violations, state media reported, citing a daily
briefing. The ministry said Ukrainian forces had attacked civilian
targets in several Russian regions and carried out strikes against
Russian military positions on the front line.
Russia's military had “responded in kind” to the ceasefire violations,
the ministry said.
Two people were injured by Ukrainian shelling in the Russian-occupied
part of Ukraine’s Kherson region, the area’s Moscow-installed leader
Vladimir Saldo said.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that Russia and Ukraine had
bowed to his request for a ceasefire running Saturday through Monday to
mark Victory Day, the Russian celebration marking the defeat of Nazi
Germany.
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People carry portraits of their relatives, fighters, killed during
military action in Ukraine, during the Immortal Regiment march at
the Nevsky prospect, the central avenue of St. Petersburg, Russia,
Saturday, May 9, 2026, during celebrations of the 81st anniversary
of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany during the World War
II. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)
Trump said there would also be an exchange of prisoners, declaring
that the break in fighting could be the “beginning of the end” of
the war.
Zelenskyy, who had said Russian authorities “fear drones may buzz
over Red Square” during the May 9 parade in Moscow, followed up on
Trump’s statement by mockingly declaring Red Square temporarily
off-limits for Ukrainian strikes to allow the Russian parade to go
ahead. The Kremlin shrugged off the comment as a “silly joke.”
Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said on Sunday he expects
U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner — who
have both taken a leading role in negotiations to end the war — to
visit Moscow “soon enough.”
However, he stressed that Moscow would not move from its demand that
Kyiv's troops withdraw from Ukraine's eastern Donbas region. “Until
(Ukraine) takes that step, we can hold several more rounds, dozens
of rounds (of negotiations), but we’ll be stuck in the same place,”
Ushakov was cited by the state news agency Tass as saying.
Previous ceasefires, most recently at Orthodox Easter, have failed
to produce any tangible results amid deep mistrust between Moscow
and Kyiv more than four years after Russia launched its invasion of
its neighbor. U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to stop the war have also
largely stalled.
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