Russia launches deadly overnight strikes in Ukraine despite Zelenskyy’s ceasefire
Damaged cars lie on road after Russian missile attack on May 4, 2026 in Merefa, Ukraine. Russian army fired an Iskander missile with a high-explosive warhead on a road near shops. (Photo by Liubov Yemets/Gwara Media/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — At least one person was killed and two people were injured by an overnight Russian drone strike on a kindergarten building in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, local officials there said on Wednesday, as Moscow’s cross-border attacks continued despite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s unilateral declaration of a temporary ceasefire beginning at midnight on Tuesday.
Ukraine’s air force said in a post to Telegram that Russia launched 108 drones and three missiles into the country overnight, of which 89 drones were intercepted or suppressed. The missiles and nine drones impacted across eight locations, the air force said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, claimed to have downed at least 53 Ukrainian drones overnight. The ministry did not specify whether any Ukrainian drones were intercepted after the unilateral Ukrainian ceasefire came into effect at midnight on Tuesday.
Sumy was among several targets of Russia’s overnight strikes. Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said in posts to Telegram that at least four people were killed and 19 people injured by Russian strikes in the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, which damaged infrastructure plus administrative and residential buildings.
In the northeastern city of Kharkiv, the ministry said, two women were injured by a drone strike on a house in the southwest of the city which also sparked a fire.
Ukraine’s State Emergency Service also reported a Russian drone attack on an apartment building in the southern city of Kherson.
Tuesday night’s attacks followed a major Russian missile and drone attack on several Ukrainian cities earlier in the day, in which officials said at least 28 people were killed.
Zelenskyy issued a statement on Wednesday condemning what he described as Russia’s “brutal attacks” and Moscow’s refusal to partake in the Kyiv-proposed 24-hour ceasefire.
“On all key frontline areas, assault operations are ongoing, and just since the beginning of today, the Russian army has carried out nearly 30 assault operations. More than 20 airstrikes involving over 70 aerial bombs were recorded just last night and this morning,” Zelenskyy wrote.
“During the night, the Russian army also launched attacks with various types of drones,” the Ukrainian president added.
“Ukraine has clearly stated that it will respond in kind, given the persistent Russian appeals through the media and social networks to maintain silence during the Moscow parade,” Zelenskyy wrote, referring to the planned “Victory Day” celebrations in the Russian capital planned for May 9.
Russian President Vladimir Putin this week announced a unilateral truce on May 8 and May 9. Zelenskyy then said Ukraine would mark its own 24-hour ceasefire beginning at midnight on May 5.
“Russia must end its current war. Even with the internet shut down and most Russians’ communications blocked, it’s absolutely clear that their leadership could emerge from the bunker and choose peace,” Zelenskyy wrote. “Our diplomatic proposals are on the Russian side, and the only thing needed is Russia’s willingness to move towards real peace.”
“As of today, we note that the Russian side has disrupted the ceasefire. Based on the results of our military and intelligence evening reports, we will determine our further actions,” he added.
A man sweeps up debris near a residential building that was hit in an airstrike in the early hours of March 27, 2026 in Tehran, Iran. (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu kicked off their joint military campaign against Iran in late February, urging the fall of the Islamic Republic.
“When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations,” Trump said, addressing Iranians in announcing the start of “major combat operations.”
A month of unrelenting combined U.S.-Israeli strikes appears to have significantly eroded Iran’s military capabilities and killed many of its most senior leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who died alongside dozens of top Iranian officials in a series of airstrikes on his official residence in Tehran in the opening salvos of the war.
But despite Trump’s assertion that the “war has been won,” Iranian forces continue to launch attacks on Israel, regional U.S. bases and American partners across the Middle East, while commercial shipping through the strategic Strait of Hormuz remains constrained, with large numbers of cargo vessels in limbo on either side of the narrow waterway at the southern entrance to the Persian Gulf.
Trump has also asserted that there had been “complete regime change,” with the leaders the U.S. is now dealing with in recently announced negotiations “more moderate” and “much more reasonable,” the president told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl.
Trump named Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the powerful speaker of the Iranian parliament, as the direct U.S. negotiating partner, though Ghalibaf has denied the assertion.
But in Tehran, the cadre of officials – Ghalibaf among them – emerging to take the reins of power appear as committed as the slain figures they are replacing, many of them veterans of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), analysts have said.
The regime in Tehran, according to Danny Citrinowicz – the Israel Defense Forces’ former top Iran researcher, now at the Institute for National Security Studies think tank in Israel – “is weaker than it was before the conflict, but it is also more radical. The IRGC has further consolidated its influence over decision-making, eroding what little internal balance once existed within the regime.”
The war appears to have given Tehran long-term leverage over the Strait of Hormuz – a “weapon of mass disruption,” as described by Ali Vaez of the International Crisis Group during an online briefing hosted by the think tank this week.
If the Islamic Republic survives the war, and its immediate aftermath by suppressing simmering anti-regime movements, its new leaders may be emboldened to retain perceived strategic advantages, chief among them control of the Strait of Hormuz, analysts who spoke to ABC News said.
That regime sentiment seems to be crystalizing. Ghalibaf, for example, told the IRNA state news agency that Iran’s strategy now rests on its control of three pillars: “missiles, the streets, and the Strait.”
Inside Iran, some sense that shift. Darius – who did not wish to use his real name for fear of reprisal – told ABC News from Tehran of a growing sentiment that “the source of legitimacy for the Islamic republic is shifting” from the clerical establishment to the IRGC.
“Now, the de facto leaders of the country are the generals in the IRGC. And they are actually running the show at the moment,” Darius said.
IRGC ascendant
The IRGC was formed shortly after the Iranian Revolution by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979, ultimately emerging as the new Islamic Republic’s primary tool for projecting its ideology and influence beyond its own borders.
The IRGC entrenched and expanded its power during the Iran-Iraq War from 1980 to 1988. With its battlefield exploits and ideological zeal, the IRGC came to embody the wartime concept of “sacred defense,” Johns Hopkins University professor Vali Nasr wrote in his recent book, “Iran’s Grand Strategy.”
Observers have long considered the IRGC to be the most powerful military, political and economic institution in Iran.
Even before the most recent U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran, many experts warned that decapitation strikes or a push for regime change risked empowering the IRGC to seize the state’s other mechanisms of power – though others suggested the force had no need to openly seize control, given its de facto hold over the country.
The new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Ali Khamenei, served in an elite IRGC unit during the Iran-Iraq War, and analysts have suggested his candidacy was strongly supported by the force.
Mojtaba Khamenei’s newly appointed military adviser, Mohsen Rezaei, was drawn from the senior ranks of the IRGC, as was the new secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who was selected to replace Ali Larijani when the latter was killed by Israeli airstrikes in mid-March.
Meanwhile, IRGC veteran Ghalibaf – who has reportedly long been close to Mojtaba Khamenei – remains alive and appears to be in a position of influence, one of the few top prewar officials to have survived the U.S.-Israeli campaign.
Inside Iran, some sense that shift. Darius told ABC News from Tehran of a growing sentiment that “the source of legitimacy for the Islamic republic is shifting” from the clerical establishment to the IRGC.
“Now, the de facto leaders of the country are the generals in the IRGC. And they are actually running the show at the moment,” Darius said.
Reading the ‘mosaic’
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi credited a “mosaic defense” strategy with enabling the Iranian military to launch retaliatory strikes despite the killing of so many senior military officials in the opening hours of the U.S.-Israeli campaign.
That decentralized approach also appeared to cause some tactical confusion. Araghchi and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, for example, both denied Iranian responsibility for several reported Iranian drone and missile attacks in the region in the days after the war erupted.
A decapitated regime in Tehran may pose challenges to American negotiators seeking a peace deal, Citrinowicz said, telling ABC News that the killings have created a “worse” strategic situation by dispersing power.
The centralized decision-making power enjoyed by Ali Khamenei is no more, he said. “Now, how are you going to work with them? It’s going to be very hard to reach an agreement with them,” Citrinowicz said, referring to the newly emergent group of leaders.
Trump himself appeared to acknowledge a diffusion of power in Iran as a result of the American-Israeli assassination campaign. “We have nobody to talk to, and you know what, we like it that way,” the president said earlier this month.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told “Good Morning America” this week there are “fractures” within the Iranian leadership, though he would not say with whom the administration is in contact.
Yossi Kuperwasser – the former head of the IDF’s military intelligence research division – told ABC News that the emergence of hardliners “was to be expected.”
“Once you eliminate Khamenei, he’s not going to be replaced by some wishy-washy character, but somebody who is committed to the cause and the IRGC is going to be in charge,” Kuperwasser said.
But Kuperwasser also noted that figures currently touted as Iranian negotiators, such as Ghalibaf, might not live to see the end of the war. Indeed, Larijani was often noted as among the prime negotiating candidates before his killing. “I’d guess there are going to be more eliminations,” Kuperwasser said.
As the war progressed, both U.S. and Israeli officials have distanced themselves from earlier suggestions of regime change. Instead, officials refocused the strategic narrative on their ambitions to degrade Iran’s conventional military – especially ballistic missile – and nuclear programs.
These targets, according to Kuperwasser, were always the Israeli priority.
“Simultaneously, we are trying to weaken the regime so as to create the conditions that can be used by the people of Iran in order to promote something that can bring about the removal of the regime from power,” Kuperwasser said. But that will not necessarily occur in the short term, he added.
‘Missiles, the street, the strait’
Citrinowicz said that whatever structure emerges to negotiate with the Trump administration will likely be influenced toward more hardline demands by the killing of its predecessors.
On the nuclear file, too, “it goes without saying” that Tehran’s outlook will have shifted, Citrinowicz said. Before the war, Iranian leaders had already publicly committed not to pursue nuclear weapons, though Tehran was refusing to accept Trump’s demands of zero enrichment. Now, Citrinowicz said, the new Iranian leadership “might find themselves rushing toward a bomb.”
Iran also has more leverage in the Strait of Hormuz than it did before the conflict, even with the significant military degradation that the U.S. and Israel appear to have inflicted. Officials in Tehran have suggested that Iranian control over the strait – and the requirement for those transiting it to coordinate with Tehran and pay tolls – is the new baseline.
Rubio hinted at long-term disruption in the Persian Gulf last week. “Immediately after this thing ends, and we’re done with our objectives, the immediate challenge we’re going to face is an Iran that may decide that they want to set up a tolling system in the Strait of Hormuz,” Rubio said.
Hamidreza Azizi of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs think tank said during the Crisis Group briefing that Tehran will be set on a conclusive settlement, not merely a ceasefire that would allow the U.S. and Israel to rearm and resume the conflict at a later date, as was the case after the 12-day conflict in June.
“Deep inside Iran’s strategic thinking, there is an understanding that ceasefires are only a means for the United States and Israel to buy time,” Azizi said. While before the conflict, Tehran appeared willing to make concessions on the nuclear file and other issues, now Iranian leaders see an opportunity to achieve what they were unable to across years of negotiations.
The endgame, Azizi said, could be one in which Iran preserves “some sort of leverage” over the Strait of Hormuz or secures “substantial sanctions removal.”
For its part, Citrinowicz said the U.S. appears to be scrambling. “There are so many people in the U.S. that understand this regime, but the administration is behaving like it’s Venezuela. It’s crazy,” Citrinowicz said, referring to the American operation in January to seize Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and support his vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, as Maduro’s successor.
Last week, the U.S. delivered 15-point plan to end the war, which was widely interpreted as a blueprint for Tehran’s capitulation. Iranian demands are likewise maximalist, calling for reparations and for the U.S. to abandon its regional bases.
“Nobody’s getting their wish list,” Dalia Dassa Kaye of the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations said during this week’s Crisis Group briefing.
In the meantime, the battlefield costs will rise and geopolitical implications deepen across the Middle East. “Even if this ends tomorrow,” Kaye said, the costs have already been paid. “It’s going to take years to recuperate the damage.”
“This is not something you put back in a box,” he added.
ABC News’ Desiree Adib and Somayeh Malekian contributed to this report.
Smoke from a building in the center of the city which has been hit by the IDF after an evacuation order on March 12, 2026 in Beirut, Lebanon. (Adri Salido/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — As Israel continued striking Beirut on Thursday, Israel’s military is preparing to expand its activity in Lebanon, Israel Defense Minister Israel Katz said.
The IDF issued a new evacuation order on Thursday, expanding the area in the south of Lebanon from which residents have been told to leave. The area now extends past the Litani River, all the way to the Zahrani River.
“I warned the Lebanese president that if the Lebanese government does not know how to control the territory and prevent Hezbollah from threatening the northern communities and firing at Israel — we will take the territory and do it ourselves,” Katz said in remarks at a military operations center in Tel Aviv.
“The prime minister and I instructed the [Israel Defense Forces] to prepare to expand IDF activity in Lebanon and restore peace and security to the northern communities,” Katz added.
The expanded evacuation order now includes the city of Nabatieh, with a population of at least 35,000 people.
Overnight, Israeli strikes hit Beirut’s Corniche, a seafront area where many had evacuated to, following orders by the IDF to leave southern Beirut neighborhoods, a Hezbollah stronghold that the IDF has been striking and bombing in the past 12 days. At least eight people have died and dozens more were injured in the strikes, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health.
“The IDF continues to conduct extensive waves of strikes from the air and sea in the Beirut area against the Hezbollah terrorist organization … Among the targets struck were terrorist infrastructure, weapons storage facilities, central headquarters, and the IRGC Air Force headquarters in Beirut,” the IDF said in a statement Thursday.
Around 800,000 have now been driven from their homes in southern Lebanon and Beirut, according to Lebanese officials.
The Israeli military had issued an urgent evacuation notice for parts of southern Lebanon, including Beirut, on Wednesday, days after first ordering the evacuation of residents from southern Lebanon.
The two have continued to trade fire since Israel last week began carrying out intensified attacks targeting Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy force in Lebanon, following its strikes on Iran.
On Wednesday, Hezbollah announced a new operation against its neighbor, launching dozens of rockets.
Israel has responded with an intense bombardment of the Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh.
The Israel Defense Forces said Wednesday it began a “large-scale wave of strikes on Hezbollah infrastructure” after issuing an “urgent and dangerous” evacuation alert for the area.
In an update late Wednesday, the IDF said it had struck 10 Hezbollah facilities in Dahieh in 30 minutes, including an intelligence headquarters and command centers.
Since March 2, when Israel began issuing evacuation warnings amid its airstrikes, over 630 people have been killed and nearly 1,600 injured in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
People gather in support of Ukraine as delegations from the United States, Ukraine and Russia meet for talks about a potential peace deal at the Intercontinental Hotel on February 17, 2026 in Geneva, Switzerland (Sedat Suna/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — American, Ukrainian and Russian negotiators convened again in Geneva, Switzerland, on Wednesday for trilateral peace talks, with the second day of meetings concluding after around two hours.
The delegations met Tuesday for the opening sessions of the third round of U.S.-brokered trilateral talks, the first two rounds of which were held in the United Arab Emirates starting in late January.
In a post to X, President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said both Ukraine and Russia had agreed to keep working towards a peace deal following Tuesday’s meetings.
“President Trump’s success in bringing both sides of this war together has brought about meaningful progress, and we are proud to work under his leadership to stop the killing in this terrible conflict,” Witkoff wrote.
“Both parties agreed to update their respective leaders and continue working towards a deal,” he added.
The Russian delegation to Geneva was led by Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to President Vladimir Putin known for his ultraconservative and nationalistic messaging.
“The negotiations were difficult, but businesslike,” Medinsky said after the conclusion of Tuesday’s talks. Medinsky also said that a new round of negotiations are expected to be held soon.
Rustem Umerov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council and the leader of Kyiv’s delegation, said in a post to Telegram before Wednesday’s meetings that the Ukrainian team was “focused on substantive work.”
Umerov also said Tuesday that the Ukrainian team held talks with European representatives from France, the U.K., Germany, Italy and Switzerland.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday that the first reports he had received from Kyiv’s delegation showed that the “military” aspect of the talks had been “constructive.”
“There are two tracks: military and political. Here I want to say that all three sides were constructive on the military track — in my view, based on the briefing I have just received,” Zelenskyy said.
“The military basically understand how to monitor a ceasefire and the end of the war, if there is political will. They have basically agreed on pretty much everything there,” the Ukrainian president added.
Before that, Zelenskyy had described the first day of talks on Tuesday as “difficult meetings” in another social media post.
“Russia is trying to drag out the negotiations, which could have already reached the final stage,” he wrote. “Thank you to the American side for their attention to details and patience in talks with the present representatives of Russia.”
Zelenskyy posted to social media on Tuesday after the first round of meetings, saying, “Ukraine is ready. We do not need war. And we always act symmetrically — we are defending our state and our independence.”
“Likewise, we are ready to move quickly toward a just agreement to end the war. The only question is for the Russians: what do they want?” Zelenskyy added.
The Ukrainian president again urged foreign partners to increase pressure and costs on Russia over Moscow’s continued long-range strike campaign against Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure.
The attacks have focused on energy targets throughout the war’s fourth winter, plunging millions of Ukrainians into periodic darkness amid bitterly cold weather.
“The team absolutely must raise the issue of these strikes — first of all with the American side, which proposed that both us and Russia refrain from attacks,” Zelenskyy said.
“‘Shaheds,’ missiles and fantasy chatter about history matter more to them than real diplomacy, diplomacy and lasting peace,” Zelenskyy said of Moscow.
Russian officials have said little about the latest round of talks. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday, “There are no plans to make any announcements on this matter. Everything will be closed to the press.”
In an interview with Sputnik Radio published on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said of the talks, “Any step that could lead to, or lead down a path that leads to, a resolution to the situation is of great importance,” as quoted by the state-run Tass news agency.
Zakharova again accused Ukraine’s European partners of trying to sabotage the peace negotiations and pressuring Kyiv to continue the war, echoing a long-held Russian disinformation narrative.
Ukraine and Russia continued their nightly drone and missile exchanges despite the ongoing talks in Geneva.
Ukraine’s air force said in a post to Telegram on Wednesday morning that Russia launched one missile and 126 drones into the country overnight, of which 100 drones were shot down or suppressed. The missile and 23 attack drones impacted across 14 locations, the air force said.
Ukraine’s State Emergency Service (SES) said in posts to Telegram that six people were injured and one person killed in a Russian strike on the southern city of Zaporizhzhia on Tuesday evening. The SES also reported an overnight attack in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces shot down at least 43 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Russia’s federal air transport agency, Rosaviatsiya, said in posts to Telegram that temporary flight restrictions were introduced at airports in Volgograd, Saratov, Cheboksary, Kazan and Kaluga.
