The Kremlin on Tuesday accused Ukraine of ignoring multiple peace overtures from President Vladimir Putin and said it remained uncertain whether Kyiv would participate in the three-day cease-fire Russia has declared for next month.
"It was President Putin who repeatedly said that Russia is ready, without any preconditions, to start the negotiations process," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "We have not heard a response from the Kyiv regime so far."
Putin on Monday declared a three-day cease-fire in the war in Ukraine from May 8-10, when Russia plans lavish celebrations to mark the 80th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
Ukraine, in response, questioned why Moscow would not agree to its call for a cease-fire lasting at least 30 days and starting immediately.
"We value people's lives and not parades," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Peskov said it was "very difficult to understand" whether Ukraine intended to join the cease-fire.
Earlier Tuesday morning, Russian and Ukrainian forces fired dozens of drones at each, killing a 12-year-old girl in Ukraine and two people in a Russian border region, authorities said.
The attacks came less than two days into a week the United States warned would be "critical" for the peace process and as U.S. officials threaten to abandon their push for a ceasefire if they do not see progress soon.
Russian strikes on Ukraine have killed dozens of people over the past month, including in the capital Kyiv, while hostilities on the front line have shown no signs of abating.
Moscow fired 100 drones at Ukraine between late Monday and early Tuesday, the Ukrainian air force said.
"The enemy attack led to a tragedy. In Gubynykha, in the Samar district, a 12-year-old girl died," the governor of Ukraine's central Dnipropetrovsk region, Sergiy Lysak, wrote on Telegram.
Gubynykha is around 140 kilometers (90 miles) west of the front line.
"A 6-year-old girl and two adults were injured," he added.
In Russia's Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, "an enemy drone deliberately struck a moving vehicle carrying five men," regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
"To our great sorrow, two people died at the scene before the arrival of medical personnel," he added.
The Russian army said it shot down 40 drones over various regions overnight, including four over the Russian-controlled Crimean peninsula.
Since launching its Ukraine offensive in February 2022, Russia has seized large parts of four Ukrainian regions and claimed them as its own, in addition to Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.
