RUSSIA’S air defences intercepted 347 Ukrainian drones overnight in what appears to be one of Kiev’s largest aerial offensives of the war, as hopes for a negotiated pause in fighting dissolved amid mutual accusations of bad faith.

Moscow said that drones were destroyed over 20 regions, including the capital, marking Ukraine’s second-biggest such attack since Russia invaded more than four years ago.

The largest previous assault came last March, when 389 drones were deployed in a single night.

The strikes came as tensions mounted ahead of Russia’s Victory Day on May 9, which marks the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.

Russian authorities had declared a unilateral ceasefire for tomorrow and Saturday, a move widely seen as tied to the importance of the commemoration.

Ukraine announced its own suspension of hostilities from midnight Tuesday, but President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Moscow ignored the gesture entirely.

“Russia has not stopped any type of its military activity. Ukraine will act symmetrically,” he said in his Wednesday evening address.

Mr Zelensky said Russian forces continued striking civilian infrastructure — power grids, rail networks and residential areas — with drones, missiles, artillery and glide bombs.

In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, a drone strike wounded nine people including three children.

Flights at Moscow’s three main airports — Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo and Vnukovo — were severely disrupted, with nearly 100 delayed or cancelled by midday.

Russia’s traditional Victory Day parade will, for the first time in nearly two decades, exclude tanks, missiles and other hardware, with the Kremlin citing the “complex operational situation.”

Ukraine shot down 92 of the 102 Russian drones launched overnight, though Moscow retains a significant numerical advantage, routinely deploying hundreds of drones in a single attack.