Russia and Ukraine fired waves of drones at each other late Friday night and early Saturday morning, just hours before a temporary ceasefire between the two was set to take effect for Orthodox Easter, according to officials.
Russia launched at least 160 drones at Ukraine, killing four people in the country's east and south, Ukrainian authorities said.
The southern Odesa region was among the hardest hit, with authorities reporting two dead and damage to civilian infrastructure.
A wave of Ukrainian drones sparked a fire at an oil depot and damaged apartment buildings in Russia's southern Krasnodar region, authorities said.
Two people died in a Ukrainian drone strike on the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, Russian-installed authorities said.
The Kremlin ordered a temporary truce from Saturday at 4:00 pm (1300 GMT) until the end of Sunday, for 32 hours.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv had “repeatedly stated” it was ready for a ceasefire over Easter and willing to reciprocate, but he also said Ukraine would respond “in kind” to any truce violations.
“Ukraine will adhere to the ceasefire and respond strictly in kind. The absence of Russian strikes in the air, on land, and at sea will mean no response from our side,” Zelensky said in a post on X.
Ukrainians, too, have expressed scepticism about whether the truce will hold.
The two sides held a ceasefire for Orthodox Easter last year, but both accused the other of hundreds of violations.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied Russia had discussed the ceasefire with Ukraine or the United States in advance and said it was not linked to negotiations to end the war.
Those U.S.-led talks aimed at ending the four-year conflict have stalled in recent weeks, as the U.S. has become embroiled in a war in the Middle East.
Even before the Iran war, progress towards a peace deal in Ukraine was slow because the two sides are at loggerheads over where the territorial lines should be drawn.
Ukraine has proposed freezing the conflict along the current front lines.
But Russia has rejected this, saying it wants Ukraine to give up all the territory in the Donetsk region that it currently controls — a demand Kyiv says is unacceptable.
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