Days after Russian President Vladimir Putin said cryptically that he believed the war in Ukraine was “coming to a close,” bloodshed and tumult unfolded in each country, suggesting there is no end in sight.
A limited truce that appeared to halt large-scale aerial attacks — but failed to stop ground fighting — expired on Tuesday.
In the early hours of Thursday, Kyiv was struck by what officials in the Ukrainian capital said was one of the largest combined drone and missile attacks since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022, killing at least 24 people.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, called the attack the “largest enemy attack on the capital” and declared May 15 a day of mourning.
“Russia has used more than 1,560 drones against our cities and communities,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted on social media. “These are definitely not the actions of those who believe the war is coming to an end.”
By Friday morning, officials said that at least three of the dead in Kyiv were children. In the Kharkiv region, officials reported that 39 people were injured as a result of strikes, including nine children.
Ukraine hit back Friday, striking an oil refinery and an apartment complex in Ryazan, a Russian city roughly 130 miles south of Moscow, sparking a large fire. At least four people were killed, Ryazan governor Pavel Malkov said, and 12 were injured.
The oil facility, owned by energy giant Rosneft, supplies the entire Moscow region. Local news outlets reported that primary oil refining units — on which all subsequent processing at the facility depends — had been damaged.
Drones also struck two residential buildings in Ryazan, including the “Tricolor” high-rise, painted in the colors of the Russian flag. Authorities in four other western Russian cities also reported drone strikes.
In Ukraine, the upheaval was not limited to the barrage of airstrikes.
Also on Thursday, Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court ordered the two-month detention of Zelensky’s former chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, after he was formally accused of being part of a multimillion-dollar corruption scheme.
Investigators allege he was a member of a group that laundered about $10.4 million through a luxury construction project near Kyiv.
The court ruled that Yermak could be released on bail of approximately $3.2 million. Yermak, who for years was viewed as the most powerful man in the country after Zelensky, has turned to friends and acquaintances to try to come up with the funds to secure his release.
“I do not have that kind of money,” Yermak said in court, adding that he has “plenty of friends and acquaintances” and expressed hope that “they will be able to help.”
Should he eventually reach the target, he would be barred from leaving Kyiv, required to surrender his international passports, and prohibited from contacting a number of individuals implicated in the case — among them Zelensky’s former business partner Timur Mindich, who has fled Ukraine and former deputy prime minister Oleksiy Chernyshov; and fortune teller Veronika Anikievich.
One of the more peculiar details to emerge from the court proceedings was an allegation that Yermak consulted Anikievich — listed in his contacts as “Veronika Feng Shui Office” — regarding appointments to state positions, sending her the birth dates of candidates for government jobs and seeking her advice. Yermak denied consulting the fortune teller in comments to journalists after the hearing.
Yermak has denied all charges and said he plans to appeal.
Yermak was Ukraine’s lead negotiator in talks with the United States, and the scandal around him has posed the biggest political threat to Zelensky’s government since Russia’s invasion.
Yermak’s formal indictment earlier this week marked a new chapter in a scandal that began last fall, when anti-corruption agencies alleged that government officials had embezzled millions from Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear power giant.
The fallout triggered a political crisis around Zelensky, prompted calls to clean up corruption, and led to the resignations of Ukraine’s energy and justice ministers. So far, Zelensky has not been implicated.
Putin had floated the ceasefire proposal ahead of the Victory Day parade in Moscow last weekend, which was notably subdued amid fears that long-range Ukrainian strikes — which have reached hundreds of miles into Russian territory — could disrupt the holiday, an annual tribute to Putin’s vision of a militaristic Russia.
Ukraine, which had proposed an indefinite ceasefire the previous week, eventually agreed to a three-day pause brokered by President Donald Trump. Russia’s parade went ahead as planned, though in a more muted form.
Speaking at a news conference after the parade, Putin made the unusual remark about the war — that he believed “the matter is coming to a close.” Analysts said the comment likely was intended to placate a war-weary domestic audience and did not signal any real move to stop the war.
Zelensky said the attack on Thursday involved an X-101 missile that was produced in early 2026, which he said should remind Western supporters of Ukraine to keep up sanctions pressure to hinder the Russian military complex.
“This means that Russia is still importing the missile production components, necessary resources and equipment — bypassing global sanctions,” Zelensky said. “This must become the genuine objective of all our partners: to put a stop to Russia’s sanctions-evasion schemes.”
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