Russia struck Kyiv with a record number of drones and missiles on 13–14 May, timed to the day US President Donald Trump arrived in Beijing for his first China visit in nine years. The attack was designed to demonstrate Russia's capabilities and apply pressure on Washington, Ukrainian Armed Forces Colonel Dmytro Kashchenko told Espreso TV and Slawa.TV.
The colonel argues that the 8–9 May Victory Day ceasefire that Russia itself proposed was operational cover, buying Moscow days of reduced Ukrainian counterstrikes to redeploy air defenses around the Russian capital, demonstrate diplomatic willingness to international audiences, and accumulate drone stockpiles for the eventual strike.
Three uses of ceasefire
Kashchenko laid out the colonel 's-eye view of how Russia used the lull.
"Russia asked for this 'ceasefire' to gather a certain quantity of air defense assets around Moscow during that time, because infrastructure and military objects were exposed," he said.
Russia proposed a 'ceasefire" to minimize Ukrainian strikes on those objects.
"The second point — Russia showed the world that it supposedly wants to negotiate," he explained.
And the third point — the Russians, during these several days, without using drones in large numbers, accumulated sufficient potential for a massive attack.
The 14 May strike on Kyiv, Kashchenko argues, was calculated to apply pressure to the US precisely while Trump was in China, with Russia demonstrating capability on the day Washington's attention was elsewhere.
What hit Ukraine on 13–14 May
Russia fired more than 800 drones across about 20 Ukrainian regions on 13 May alone, in one of the longest aerial attacks of the war, according to Ukraine's Air Force.
The barrage continued through the night into 14 May, with over 600 drones and different missiles, when Russian missiles destroyed a section of a 9-story Kyiv apartment building, killing at least eight civilians. Strikes hit Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Kharkiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Khmelnytskyi, and other regions.
Zelenskyy said on 13 May that "Russia's obvious aim is to overload air defense systems and inflict as much grief and pain as possible, specifically during these days."
He noted Moscow's massive aerial attack was happening on the day Trump arrived in China.
Moscow's framing
Russia's Defense Ministry described the operation as a "massive retaliatory strike" against fuel and energy infrastructure, drone assembly facilities, and ammunition depots — not against civilians.
The ministry said the strikes were a response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian "civilian objects." Russia has used the same retaliation framing after previous strikes on Ukrainian residential buildings.
Pattern Kashchenko describes is not new
Russia has announced ceasefires before that coincided with operational pauses, force redeployments, and eventual escalation. Ukraine recorded 26 violated ceasefires between 2014 and 2020.
The 13–14 May attack follows the same shape. First comes the ceasefire announcement, then days of reduced kinetic activity, and on the final stage, a larger combined strike than what preceded the ceasefire.
What's new is the linkage of the timing to direct US pressure, striking on the day the American president was abroad, meeting a strategic competitor.
