Moscow had never said it would abide by Kyiv's call to halt fire starting at midnight on May 6 -- a counter-truce called for by President Volodymyr Zelensky after Russia announced a short-term ceasefire to cover its Victory Day parade in Moscow on Saturday.

"This shows that Russia rejects peace and its fake calls for a ceasefire on May 9th have nothing to do with diplomacy. Putin only cares about military parades, not human lives," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga wrote on social media.

Russia had on Tuesday launched waves of drone, missile and bomb attacks on multiple cities across Ukraine, killing at least 28 people and wounding dozens in one of the deadliest days for civilians in weeks.

Ukrainian attacks had also killed five in the annexed peninsula of Crimea and two in a long-range drone strike on central Russia.

The two sides have been at war since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Talks on ending what has spiralled into Europe's worst conflict since World War II have shown little progress.

Moscow wants Kyiv to pull its troops out of the east and reject Western military support -- demands rejected in Kyiv as tantamount to capitulation and a betrayal of the hundreds of thousands of soldiers killed.

Moscow's defence ministry said it downed 53 Ukrainian drones between 21:00 and 07:00 (1800-0400 GMT) -- far fewer than in previous days. It did not say whether any of the drones attacked after Kyiv's unilateral truce was supposed to come into effect at midnight.