Moscow (AFP) - A barrage of Ukrainian drones forced Russian airports, including in Moscow, to restrict flights on Tuesday, three days before the Kremlin holds its grand military parade on Red Square to mark victory over Nazi Germany.

Hours later, the Kremlin said it still planned to stick to a three-day truce it proposed starting Thursday – which Ukraine has said is “just for the parade” on May 9.

Kyiv has denounced the proposal as “theatrical” and a “manipulation” – instead demanding a longer, immediate ceasefire as a step towards ending three years of conflict, which began with the launch of Russia’s full-scale offensive in 2022.

“President (Vladimir) Putin’s initiative for a temporary ceasefire during the holidays is relevant,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.

But he added that “an adequate response will be given immediately” if Ukraine does not also halt fire.

Speculation has swirled over the safety of Moscow’s May 9 parade – which Russia has vowed will be its grandest ever, to mark 80 years since the end of World War II.

It will take place in the shadow of the conflict and as the United States pushes for both sides to end the fighting, so far to no avail.

Around 20 leaders are expected to attend the Red Square parade – including China’s Xi Jinping, due to arrive Wednesday.

- Flights disrupted -

But on the eve of Xi’s arrival, Moscow said Ukraine launched more than 100 drones overnight, including on the Russian capital. Kyiv, meanwhile, said Russia attacked with 136 drones.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defences shot down 19 drones around the Russian capital and debris fell on a major avenue, without causing injuries.

Flight restrictions were introduced at more than a dozen airports, including four in Moscow, Russian news agencies reported, citing the Federal Air Transport Agency – though traffic at the city’s main Sheremetyevo airport remained largely unaffected.

Russian media broadcast images of a cracked supermarket window and a blackened residential building facade in Moscow.

Airports were also affected in other cities, including Volgograd and Nizhny Novgorod.

In the Kursk region, acting governor Alexander Khinshtein said an attack was carried out on an electrical substation in the city of Rylsk late Monday, wounding two teenagers.

“As a result of the attack on the city, two transformers were damaged, and the power was completely cut off,” he said on Telegram.

- ‘Playing games’ -

On the battlefield, Moscow said its troops had captured the village of Lysivka in the eastern Donetsk region. It lies south of Pokrovsk, which Russian troops have been trying to seize for months.

Russian troops have been edging westwards in the Donetsk region, now just several kilometres away from the neighbouring region of Dnipropetrovsk.

Ukraine said Russian attacks killed at least two civilians in the south and east of the country Tuesday.

Emergency services said one person was killed in the southern Odesa region.

Officials in the eastern city of Kramatorsk said one person there was killed by Russian shelling.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has denounced Putin’s proposal of a three-day ceasefire, to start at 2100 GMT on May 7, as “playing games to create a pleasant atmosphere” for the May 9 parade.

He instead demanded an immediate, longer ceasefire.

Putin in March rejected a US-proposed unconditional ceasefire that Zelensky had accepted.

Moscow has said the latest truce proposal was aimed at testing Kyiv’s “readiness” for long-term peace.

US President Donald Trump on Monday defended Putin’s proposal, saying it “doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a lot, if you knew where we started from”.

Washington has held separate talks with both Kyiv and Moscow to end the conflict, but has threatened to walk away from the process if progress is not made soon.

Trump, who has often had sympathetic comments toward Putin, has recently made some unusually critical statements on the Russian leader for a series of deadly strikes on Ukraine this spring.