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Russian Drone Hits Kharkiv Skyscraper, Injuring 5 Amid Strained Cease-Fire

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People lay flowers on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to mark Victory Day over Nazism in World War II, at the Eternal Glory park in Kyiv on May 9.
People lay flowers on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to mark Victory Day over Nazism in World War II, at the Eternal Glory park in Kyiv on May 9.

A Russian drone hit a high-rise residential building in Ukraine's second-largest city, authorities said, injuring at least six people and straining a three-day cease-fire timed for Victory Day celebrations.

Russia, meanwhile, outright accused Ukraine of violating the truce, citing what it said were attacks on six civilian locations inside Russia.

The attack on the Kharkiv building occurred late on May 9, hours after the conclusion of Russia's annual Red Square parade.

The event, which was markedly pared down from previous years, went forward amid veiled threats from Ukraine about disrupting the event and angry open threats from Moscow to retaliate on Kyiv.

Ukraine's president issued a mocking statement ahead of the event, saying he was authorizing the Kremlin parade to be held.

Oleh Synyehubov, Kharkiv's regional governor, said five people were wounded in the incident.

Ukrainian authorities said more than two dozen Russian drones were spotted over Ukraine overnight.

Russia's Defense Ministry on May 10 alleged that Ukraine has targeted civilian locations in Kursk and Belgorod -- two regions bordering Ukraine -- and other sides.

Nearly 100 Ukrainian drones were spotted over the Kursk region. Aleksandr Khinshtein, the regional governor, said no injuries were reported.

In Belgorod, at least eight people were reported wounded from Ukrainian drone strikes, according to regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.

The cease-fire is formally set to expire on May 11. Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yury Ushakov told reporters there were no ongoing discussions to extend the truce.

Nor, Ushakov said, were the any plans to resume peace talks, which the United States had been pushing forward.

Also speaking to reporters on May 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he thought the Ukraine war was coming to an end, and he signaled he wanted to negotiate new security arrangements for Europe.

The US-brokered peace talks to end the all-out war, now in its fifth year, have faltered in part because of Russia's hard-line demands, which include Ukrainian troops withdrawing from territories in the eastern Donbas region that they still control.

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