AFP, Kyiv

President Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday said that Russia had decided to reject efforts to halt fighting and save lives by launching fresh attacks on Ukraine, which had called a unilateral ceasefire.

His comments raise the spectre of retaliatory Ukrainian strikes on Moscow during mass public events celebrating the end of World War II on May 9, after the Kremlin announced it would hold off attacks on Ukraine that day, hoping Kyiv would do the same.

“Russia’s choice is an obvious spurning of a ceasefire and of saving lives,” Zelensky wrote on social media.

Ukraine, he added, had earlier vowed to “act in kind” to the Russian ceasefire proposal this weekend, when Russians typically flood streets across the country to mark victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

“It is obvious to any reasonable person that a full-scale war and the daily murdering of people are a bad time for public ‘celebrations,’” the Ukrainian leader said.

Kyiv said Russia had attacked eastern and southern Ukraine with more than 100 drones overnight, a day after Russian strikes killed almost 30 Ukrainian civilians.

Moscow had never said it would abide by Kyiv’s call to halt fire from midnight on May 6 -- a counter-truce Zelensky proposed after Russia announced a ceasefire to cover its Victory Day parade Saturday on Red Square in Moscow.

Zelensky had dismissed Russia’s “utter cynicism” for calling for a ceasefire to protect the parade -- one of the most important days of the year for Russian leader Vladimir Putin -- while launching deadly strikes on his country.

A Ukrainian officer at the eastern front, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP: “The enemy continued to carry out infantry raids and attempts to storm our positions.”

Since Russia “did not comply” with the Kyiv-suggested ceasefire, “our unit responded in kind and countered all provocations”, he added.

Another frontline commander said: “The intensity of combat operations remains at the same level.”

His unit, he said, was also responding: “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth!”.

Kyiv said at least one person had been killed in the overnight strikes.

Russian forces also struck a kindergarten in the eastern border region of Sumy on Wednesday morning, killing a security guard, local officials said.

The Kremlin has not commented on the Kyiv-proposed ceasefire, only calling for Ukraine to halt attacks for May 9.

Moscow’s defence ministry said it had downed 53 Ukrainian drones between 21:00 and 07:00 (1800-0400 GMT) -- far fewer than in previous days.

It did not say whether any of the drones attacked after Kyiv’s unilateral truce was supposed to come into effect at midnight.

Late on Tuesday, Ukrainian drone attacks on the north of Russian-annexed Crimea killed five people, Moscow-installed authorities in the peninsula said.

The strike hit hours after Russia had pounded several Ukrainian cities with the deadliest attacks in weeks -- killing at least 28 people in 24 hours.

Zelensky called on Ukraine’s allies to condemn the attacks. A strike on the centre of Zaporizhzhia city, which killed 12 people, had “absolutely no military justification”, he added.

Kyiv on Tuesday hit deep inside Russia, killing two people in Cheboksary, a city on the Volga, hundreds of miles from Ukraine.

The attacks have created a sense of nervousness in Russia ahead of the May 9 parade. Moscow has said it will remove military hardware from the procession for the first time in almost 20 years.