Headlines for May 8, 2025

Ukraine has accused Russia of violating a unilaterally declared ceasefire, just hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin said his forces would pause attacks for three days. Russian warplanes reportedly fired two guided bombs on Ukraine’s Sumy region. Beside that attack, there were no other reports of Russian incursions. This follows another wave of Ukrainian drone attacks that forced the closure of more than a dozen Russian airports, including four in Moscow, where 29 leaders, including China’s Xi Jinping, are gathering for a World War II Victory Day parade.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had no plans to abide by Russia’s truce, but repeated his offer for a formal 30-day ceasefire. This week, Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said President Putin is unlikely to accept a ceasefire plan unless it requires Ukraine to withdraw from the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.

Keith Kellogg: “If you do a ceasefire in place, the ground that you own, the ground that you fought for, that that’s your ground right now. What happens five or 10 years down the line is different. And you don’t have to [inaudible]” —

John Roberts: “So, basically freeze everything in place?”

Keith Kellogg: “Right. And we’ve got that right now, and the Ukrainians are willing to do a freeze in place, what I call a ceasefire in place. And then, for a period of time, they’re willing to set up a demilitarized zone. What they basically said is, ’We’ll back up 15 kilometers, you back up 15 kilometers,’ to the Russians, so you get this 30-kilometer, 18-mile zone that you can actually observe.”