Russia and Ukraine kept up dueling attacks on one another’s capitals on Wednesday, a day before a Russian-proposed three-day cease-fire was to take effect. A strike in Kyiv killed two people and wounded another eight, including four children.
Russia had offered the truce beginning at midnight on Wednesday to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Foreign dignitaries including China’s president, Xi Jinping, were scheduled to attend a Victory Day parade in Moscow on Friday.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine rejected the offer as too short to allow for meaningful negotiations to end the war and said that Vladimir V. Putin of Russia had proposed the truce only to put guests of the Russian parade at ease. Ukraine has said it will adhere to a cease-fire if it is extended for 30 days.
A missile and drone attack on Kyiv on Wednesday followed a Ukrainian exploding drone attack on Moscow on Tuesday that damaged a building in Moscow, forcing airports serving the Russian capital to close for several hours. Moscow’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, wrote in a post on Telegram that air defense forces shot down seven Ukrainian drones near Moscow.
On Wednesday, the governors of two regions to the south and southeast of Moscow reported Ukrainian drone attacks overnight.
In Kyiv on Wednesday, the authorities warned of a threat of Russian ballistic missiles flying toward the city shortly before explosions range out around 1 a.m. It was unclear whether the missiles were intercepted or hit targets in or near Kyiv.
Later, Kyiv’s military administrator reported damage from debris after air defense forces shot down exploding drones over the city. Air defense teams with machine guns had opened fire throughout the city center.
Ukrainian officials also reported damage and fires to an office building, a high-rise under construction and an apartment block in several neighborhoods of Kyiv and in the city’s suburbs. The two victims were found in an apartment building that had caught fire, according to firefighters. Among the wounded were three children who suffered burns.
Elsewhere in the country, local authorities in Zaporizhzhia, in southern Ukraine, reported fires and damage from a volley of drones hitting the city.
Andrew E. Kramer is the Kyiv bureau chief for The Times, who has been covering the war in Ukraine since 2014.
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