Kiev intensified its strikes on border regions ahead of the 72-hour ceasefire, a high-ranking Russian official has said

Six Russian civilians were killed and 23 others wounded in Ukrainian attacks during the 72-hour Victory Day ceasefire, top Russian diplomat Rodion Miroshnik has said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a unilateral truce from May 7-8 to May 10-11 to mark the 80th anniversary of Soviet victory over Nazi Germany and to encourage unconditional peace talks with Kiev. However, Ukraine's Vladimir Zelensky declined to support the ceasefire, dismissing it as a Russian ploy and an "attempt at manipulation."

Miroshnik, who is the Russian Foreign Ministry's ambassador-at-large tasked with documenting Kiev's alleged war crimes, told TASS on Monday that ahead of the start of the truce "the Ukrainian Nazis not only failed to reduce the intensity of attacks on civilian targets, but increased the number of such strikes by almost a quarter," compared to previous days.

During the ceasefire, Ukrainian forces targeted "residential buildings, medical transport, civilian vehicles and commercial facilities," he said.

According to the diplomat, the "most flagrant" attacks took place in Kursk Region bordering Ukraine. In one of the incidents, a man lost his life as a result of a strike by a US-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launcher on the village of Zvannoye, and in another a woman was killed after an aerial bomb was dropped on the village of Glushkovo, he said.

Overall, during the past week, the Ukrainian military fired at least 2,636 munitions at civilian targets inside Russia, with the border regions of Kursk, Belgorod, and Bryansk being affected the most, Miroshnik said. The majority of those attacks were carried out with the use of drones, he added.

The strikes killed 21 civilians and left 70 others wounded, the diplomat said.

The intensification of attacks by Kiev over the past seven days was an attempt "to intimidate the civilian population" of Russia, he stressed.

Russia's Defense Ministry said earlier that the Ukrainian military has committed more than 14,000 violations of the Victory Day truce, including making five unsuccessful attempts to cross into Russian territory in Kursk and Belgorod regions. According to the ministry, the Russian military strictly observed the ceasefire regime, only responding to attacks when they happened.

(RT.com)