Russia rocked by Ukrainian drone bombardment hours before ceasefire | World | News

Russia faced six hours of continuous bombardment by Ukrainian drones just hours before Donald Trump announced the Victory Day ceasefire.

The Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed that 71 Ukrainian UAVs were intercepted and destroyed in a frenzied period between 14:00 and 20:00 Moscow time on Friday, May 8.

Less than two hours later, President Trump went to Truth Social to announce a three-day ceasefire agreement and prisoner exchange between the two warring nations.

While preparations for large-scale Victory Day celebrations were continuing, unmanned aerial vehicles were stopped over Moscow. Putin had imposed a comprehensive security lockdown in the capital, with snipers and machine guns stationed in the Kremlin’s towers overlooking Red Square, out of fear that the May 9 incident could become a target for Ukraine.

The Russian Army confirmed the drone bombardment in a statement and said: “Air defense alert systems intercepted and destroyed 71 Ukrainian fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) over the Kaluga, Tula, Belgorod, Bryansk, Kursk, Ryazan, Rostov, Voronezh and Oryol regions, the Moscow region and the Krasnodar and Stavropol regions, as well as over the Black Sea.”

President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the ceasefire in X and said that exchanging 1,000 for 1,000 prisoners was more important than targeting Moscow.

He said: “Red Square is less important to us than the lives of Ukrainian prisoners who could be brought home.

“Therefore, today, within the framework of the negotiation process mediated by the American side, we received an agreement from Russia on the exchange of prisoners in the format of 1000 to 1000.”

Security around May 9 Victory Day celebrations was stepped up this week after a Ukrainian drone attacked an elite high-rise building near the Kremlin.

It has been reported that Putin’s paranoia has intensified in recent days, and the Russian leader even went so far as to ban officials from wearing wristwatches at meetings for fear of a “007-style” attack.