RUSSIA fired dozens of drones at targets in Ukraine overnight, Ukrainian officials said today, disregarding a unilateral ceasefire announced by Kiev, while Moscow alleged that Ukraine had failed to keep its own pledge to pause military action.

On Tuesday, Russian drone and missile strikes on Ukraine killed 27 people and wounded 120, all of them civilians, reported Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko.

In Moscow, the Defence Ministry said that its air defences had shot down 53 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions, the Crimean peninsula and the Black Sea between Tuesday evening and dawn today.

Five people were killed by a Ukrainian drone strike on the city of Dzhankoi in Russian-annexed Crimea, according to regional governor Sergei Aksyonov.

The war has killed more than 15,000 civilians, according to the United Nations.

There had been no official sign from Moscow that it would join Kiev’s ceasefire, which was supposed to begin at midnight, and there was little hope of a pause in hostilities as the war stretches into its fifth year.

“After yesterday’s savage strikes against our cities and communities … the Russian army continued active hostilities and terrorist shelling throughout this day as well,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X today. “Russia’s choice is an obvious spurning of a ceasefire and of saving lives.

“Russia must end the war it is currently waging,” he said. “The Russian side has our diplomatic proposals and the only thing needed is Russia’s willingness to move toward real peace.”

On the roughly 800-mile front line, Russia’s bigger army remains engaged in a slow-moving and costly slog against Ukraine’s drone-heavy defences.

Mr Zelensky had announced the unilateral ceasefire after Russia promised to pause hostilities for two days this week while it marks the 81st anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.