Heavy Fighting On Second Day of Trump’s Russo-Ukrainian Ceasefire

Trump’s 3-day ceasefire is not holding. Heavy fighting continues along the front with mutual violations. Long-range strikes reduced sharply, but artillery, drones, and assaults persist, killing civilians in multiple regions. Make us preferred on Google Flip Share Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Bluesky Email Copy Copied In this handout photograph taken and released by the press service of the 65th Mechanized Brigade of Ukrainian Armed Forces on April 29, 2026, a Ukrainian recruit (R) listens to explanations from a military instructor during a military training at an undisclosed location in Zaporizhzhia region, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Andriy Andriyenko / 65th Mechanized Brigade of Ukrainian Armed Forces / AFP) Content Share Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Bluesky Email Copy Copied Flip Make us preferred on Google The three-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine announced by US President Donald Trump is not holding, and frequent intense battles along a 1,500-kilometer-long (932-mile-long) fighting front are continuing, but both sides appear to have reduced long-range strikes against each other somewhat, Kyiv Post review of combat activity on Sunday found. The US leader’s Saturday declaration that thanks to his personal intervention and diplomatic skills, he had successfully negotiated with Moscow and Kyiv for a 72-hour halt to hostilities was on Sunday, visibly disconnected from the situation on the ground, where intensity and casualties in frontline combat in Europe’s biggest war in 80 years stayed mostly unchanged, official sources and eyewitness accounts confirmed. Follow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official . Russia’s Ministry of Defense, in a Monday statement, describing the previous 24 hours of operations, accused Ukrainian forces of attacking Russian positions 676 times with artillery, tanks, or mortars, and 6,331 times with drones. Other weapons allegedly employed by Kyiv forces in violation of the Trump ceasefire included guided bombs, precision-guided rockets, and “illegal” phosphorus chemical artillery shells, and Ukrainian troops assaulted Russian positions eight times, in all cases unsuccessfully and with heavy losses, allegedly 700+ men on the day, according to the official Moscow statement. Russian forces only fired in self-defense and in no cases broke the ceasefire, the state-run RIA television news agency reported on Monday. Other Topics of Interest Russia, Saudi Arabia Launch Visa-Free Travel From May 11 Russia and Saudi Arabia launched a visa-free travel regime on May 11, allowing stays of up to 90 days annually. Russia became only the fourth country granted such access by Riyadh after Kuwait, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and regional authorities on Sunday evening, highlighted mirroring, and according to them, even worse Russian violations, including more than 150 ground assaults, 100 artillery salvos, and thousands of drone strikes carried out against Ukrainian forces since their ceasefire purportedly went into force on Saturday. Within the 24-hour period, Sunday, May 10, Ukraine’s General Staff reported Kyiv’s forces engaged Russian forces 144 times, and that Russian drones had carried out 5,002 attacks, along with 1,541 attacks by more traditional weapons systems like artillery, rocket artillery or mortars. The hottest sectors of the front, according to that official Kyiv statement, included the Lyman sector in Luhansk region (11 Russian ground assaults detected and repelled), the southern Hulyaipole sector (14 attacks), and in the Pokrovsk sector of Donetsk region (30 attacks). In most cases, those Ukrainian forces’ statements said, the Russian assaults were carried out by small groups of infantrymen attempting to infiltrate deeper into Ukrainian lines on foot. In Pokrovsk, in night and day engagements around that city and villages nearby, on Sunday, Ukrainian forces claimed that 72 Russian soldiers were detected and killed, and another 23 were injured in those attacks. The independent battle watch group DeepState, on Monday, reported Russian troops had captured a little over 3 square kilometers (1.2 square miles) of territory in the Pokrovsk sector over the past 24 hours. In contrast with continuing serious and at times heavy ground combat along front lines, on Sunday, Russian long-range strikes against targets in Ukraine fell off dramatically. Russian forces that day launched only 27 Shahed-type drones at targets inside of Ukraine, according to Ukrainian Air Force statements. The figure was a dramatic decrease from 100-150 robot aircraft launched by Russia on a typical night of air bombardment of Ukraine, and only a fraction of a major raid potentially numbering 800+ drones. The Ukrainian Air Force claimed all 27 were jammed effectively or shot down. According to Russian Defense Ministry and civilian authority statements, Ukrainian drones did not attempt to penetrate Russian airspace on Sunday. But, during the second day of the Trump-declared ceasefire, shorter-range attacks beyond the direct fighting lines continued apace. The bloodiest attacks hit Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, where drone, artillery strikes and air-dropped glide bombs killed a reported three civilians and wounded at least eight civilians, some children, on Sunday. In the eastern Donetsk region, on Sunday, three Ukrainian civilians were wounded in 18 incidents of Russian shell and mortar fire, according to a local authority announcement. Buildings and automobiles in Dobropillia, Sloviansk, Druzhivka and Kramatorsk were hit. A total of 421 civilians, among them 74 children, were evacuated from homes near the front line in the Donetsk region. In the southern Zaporizhzhia region, also on Sunday, one Ukrainian civilian was killed, two others were wounded as a result of Russian attacks. The Zaporizhzhia region governor’s office reported Russian forces on the day launched 785 small arms attacks, artillery salvos or aerial bombardment across the region, hitting 36 towns or villages. Damage was also done to homes, non-residential buildings and cars. In the southern Kherson region, where Russian and Ukrainian forces are separated by the Dnipro River and wetlands along it, one person was killed and seven were wounded by Russian cross-river fires. As in past weeks and months, Kherson city authorities reported Russian First Person View (FPV) drones flying above Kherson city and neighboring villages, seeming to seek out pedestrians and individual civilian vehicles for attacks. Ukrainian FPV and bomber drones, likewise, were ranging widely in the rear area of Russian frontline troops across the front on Sunday. The Ukrainian Feniks drone regiment, fielded by the Border Troops command, on Monday posted what it called fresh video images of its unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) attacking All-Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) and drivers making supply runs, bunkers and trenches, infantry sheltering in woods and houses, artillery pieces, armored personnel carriers, trucks loaded with troops and tanks. Individual Russian soldiers being hunted down by drones are also shown. The strikes per unit statement was carried out by FPV and bomber drones, as well as by artillery and mortars adjusted by drone observation, in the Lyman, Dobropillia, Hulyaipole, and Pokrovsk sectors, the unit claimed. Kyiv Post researchers confirmed significant fighting at all those locations. The three-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine announced by Trump is not holding, and battles along a 1,500-kilometer-long (932-mile-long) fighting front are continuing at typical intensities, although both sides appear to have reduced long-range strikes against each other somewhat, Kyiv Post review of combat activity on Sunday found. Stefan Korshak is the Kyiv Post Senior Defense Correspondent. He is from Houston Texas, is a Yalie and since the mid-1990s has worked as correspondent/photographer for newswire, newspapers, television and radio. He has reported from five wars but most enjoys doing articles on wildlife and nature. You can read his weekly blog on the Russo-Ukraine War on Facebook, Substack and Medium. His new book on the 2022 Siege of Mariupol is available on Amazon UK and Amazon US .