- Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha stated on May 6 that Russia violated Ukraine's midnight silence regime with 3 missiles and 108 drones fired overnight.
- Sybiha said Russia's proposed May 9 ceasefire has nothing to do with diplomacy, calling it cover for Putin's Victory Day parade on Red Square.
Russia ignored Ukraine’s ceasefire initiative and launched a sustained overnight attack with drones and glide bombs within minutes of a silence regime taking effect, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha declared on May 6, calling Moscow’s parallel proposal for a May 9 ceasefire a political performance with no connection to genuine diplomacy.
Sybiha posted the statement on X in the early hours of May 6, saying Russia had violated the silence regime that Ukraine initiated at midnight. “Moscow once again ignored a realistic and fair call to end hostilities, supported by other states and international organisations,” Sybiha said. He noted that from the evening of May 5, Russian forces had fired 3 missiles and 108 drones at Ukraine, with attacks continuing through the night and into the morning of May 6, according to Ukrainian Pravda.
The silence regime had been announced by President Volodymyr Zelensky, and Russian forces broke it in the opening minutes, attacking with strike drones and glide bombs. Ukraine’s Air Force tracked hostile drones moving toward Pavlohrad, Kharkiv, Izium, and Vilshany overnight, while Russian aviation launched glide bomb strikes against Sumy, Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts. As of the morning of May 6, the attack was ongoing, with reports of a strike on a kindergarten in Sumy emerging during the assault.
Sybiha was direct about what he sees as the purpose behind Moscow’s simultaneous call for a May 9 ceasefire. “This shows that Russia rejects peace and its fake calls for a ceasefire on May 9th have nothing to do with diplomacy. Putin only cares about military parades, not human lives,” he said. The timing of Russia’s proposed ceasefire window — covering May 8 and May 9 — aligns with Victory Day, the annual commemoration Russia holds on Red Square with a military parade that Putin typically presides over. Ukraine and its allies have characterized the proposal as a request for a security guarantee around the parade rather than a genuine step toward ending hostilities.
Russia has repeatedly launched significant strike packages during periods when diplomatic language around pauses or negotiations has been circulating, a combination that Ukrainian officials and Western analysts have interpreted as deliberate signaling rather than evidence of any genuine interest in reducing violence. Three missiles and 108 drones fired during a self-declared ceasefire window is not ambiguous. It is a statement about intentions made through operational action rather than diplomatic communiqué.
Sybiha called for the international community to respond by increasing pressure on the Russian regime through new sanctions, greater isolation, accountability for crimes committed, and expanded support for Ukraine across all domains. The framing reflects Ukraine’s consistent position that negotiations without sustained external pressure on Moscow produce neither genuine ceasefires nor durable agreements, and that the diplomatic track requires a coercive track running alongside it to be effective.
The overnight strike package — drones, missiles, and glide bombs spread across multiple oblasts simultaneously — follows a pattern Russian forces have used repeatedly to saturate Ukrainian air defense across a wide geographic area, forcing defenders to prioritize interception across multiple vectors at once. Glide bombs launched by Russian aircraft over Russian territory remain a persistent challenge for Ukrainian air defense because they are released outside the range of most available interceptors, allowing Russian jets to strike targets deep inside Ukraine without entering contested airspace. The combination of long-range drones approaching at low altitude and high-altitude glide bomb releases creates a layered threat that Ukrainian air defense crews have been managing through the night.
Reports of a strike on a kindergarten in Sumy, if confirmed, would add to a documented pattern of Russian strikes on civilian infrastructure and civilian-occupied buildings throughout the war. Sumy Oblast sits in northeastern Ukraine directly adjacent to the Russian border and has been subject to regular cross-border artillery, drone, and missile fire throughout the conflict.
Russia launched more than 100 drones and multiple missiles at Ukraine on the same night it was calling for peace. The distance between those two positions is not a negotiating gap. It is a policy.