Russia has launched a wide-scale wave of strikes in Kiev and across Ukraine, sowing destruction and injuries, officials said early Monday, as Moscow prepares for its Victory Day holiday.
Victory Day in Russia is May 9, one of the country’s most famous holidays, marking the anniversary of Nazi Germany’s surrender in 1945.
Air raid sirens sounded over Ukraine on Monday.
Ukraine: Nationwide air alert after attacks
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Ukraine’s military command claimed its forces destroyed 35 Iranian-made Shahed drones that Russia fired at various targets across the country overnight.
“The Russian Federation [also] launched 16 rocket attacks last night, particularly on the cities of Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odessa regions,” the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in its daily update.
At least five people were injured in Russian attacks on Kiev, according to Ukrainian officials, while Russian missiles set fire to a food warehouse in the Black Sea city of Odessa and explosions were reported in several other Ukrainian regions.
Three people were injured in explosions in Kiev’s Solomyanskyi district and two others were injured when wreckage of drones fell on Sviatoshyn district, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on his Telegram news channel.
Firefighters at camps damaged by Russian attacks in the southern Odessa region on May 8Credit: UKRAINE STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE/Portal
The Kiev military administration said debris from a drone fell onto a runway at Zhulyany Airport, one of the Ukrainian capital’s two passenger airports, and did not cause a fire, but rescue services were working at the site.
It also said drone debris appeared to have hit a two-story building in central Kiev’s Shevchenkivskyi district, causing damage. There was no immediate information about possible victims.
Meanwhile, Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesman for the Odessa military administration, published on his Telegram channel photos of a large building completely engulfed in flames, which, among other things, depicted a Russian attack on a food warehouse.
After air raid alarms sounded for hours over around two-thirds of Ukraine, there were also media reports of explosion noises in the southern Kherson region and in the Zaporizhia region in the south-east.
Here are some of the other notable developments regarding the war in Ukraine on Monday May 8:
Putin wants to take part in the Victory Day military parade, the Kremlin says
Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend the annual military parade in Moscow’s Red Square as planned, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“Tomorrow the president will actually appear at the parade,” said Peksov, as reported by the Interfax news agency.
Peskov said it has yet to be decided whether this year’s celebrations would include an air show. The Kremlin announced that the air show was canceled last year due to bad weather.
Authorities said last week they had tightened security as Moscow prepares to celebrate the Soviet Union’s triumph over Nazi Germany in 1945.
Russia last week claimed Ukraine tried to assassinate Putin with a drone strike, a claim Kiev has firmly denied.
Celebrations in Russian cities have been scaled back amid the war in Ukraine and concerns about Ukrainian attacks on them.
US Says Kremlin Lies About Drone Strike
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Hundreds were evacuated from occupied towns in Zaporizhia province
Some 1,679 people, including 660 children, were evacuated from occupied Russian towns in the southeastern Zaporizhia region, a Russian-appointed official in the region said.
Authorities in the province’s occupied cities ordered evacuations last week after rumors surfaced of a Ukrainian counter-offensive.
The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. Moscow troops seized the plant soon after invading Ukraine, but Ukrainian workers continued to operate it during the occupation.
Rafael Grossi, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has spent months convincing Russian and Ukrainian officials to set up a safe zone around the facility to prevent the war from causing a radiation leak.
The Chinese foreign minister is on a European tour this week
China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang is starting a European tour this week with planned stops in Germany, France and Norway.
The top Chinese diplomat will hold talks with his German, French and Norwegian counterparts during the trip, which begins on Monday and lasts until Friday.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said the visit was at the invitation of Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna and Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt.
He did not give details about the agenda of the visit, but peace in Ukraine is expected high.
The visit comes about two weeks after China made controversial statements about the sovereignty of former Soviet states.
The Chinese ambassador to France drew European ire when he said such countries, which would include Ukraine, “have no effective status under international law because there is no international agreement confirming their status as sovereign nations.” “.
Head of the European Commission visits Kiev
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will visit Kiev on Tuesday, including for talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky.
An EU spokesman announced the visit on Monday.
“The visit will focus on all dimensions of our relationship with Ukraine,” said spokesman Eric Mamer.
Von der Leyen has visited the Ukrainian capital several times since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Zelenskyi expects Russia, like Nazi Germany, to suffer defeat
As Europe marks the 78th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he expected Moscow’s troops to be defeated in a similar way.
“We fought then and we fight now so that no one ever enslaves other nations and destroys other countries. And all these ancient evils that modern Russia is now bringing back will be defeated, just as Nazism was defeated,” he said in a video statement, which stands in front of a war memorial on a hilltop above Kiev.
Zelenskyy reiterated Ukraine’s break with this past and also said the country will now mark the end of the war on May 8 with amending laws to be presented to the Ukrainian parliament.
Russia celebrates the defeat of the Nazis on May 9 because the German surrender was signed late that evening in Berlin, after midnight Moscow time, and – until now – the former Soviet state of Ukraine had also followed this practice.
Russia hopes to capture Bakhmut by Tuesday – Ukrainian general
Russia has intensified shelling of Bakhmut and hopes to end it by Tuesday, said Ukraine’s top general in charge of defending the besieged city, vowing to do everything possible to prevent it.
Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s ground forces commander, said Russian forces increased the intensity of heavy-weapon shelling of the city, began using more advanced equipment and regrouped troops.
“Today it is important to make decisions as soon as possible and to predict the enemy’s actions,” Syrskyi said on his Telegram channel after allegedly visiting the troops along the Bakhmut front.
Wagner boss says Moscow promises more weapons
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“The Russians still hope to take the city by May 9. Our task is to prevent this,” he said.
The battle for the city, once home to 70,000 people, has symbolic meaning for both sides, with Ukraine still holding on to some parts of it after more than 10 months of bitter fighting against regular Russian troops and the Wagner mercenary force.
Moscow sees Bakhmut as a springboard for attacks on other Ukrainian cities. Kyiv has previously said that maintaining Bakhmut’s defenses, which occupy key Russian offensive forces, will allow the military to prepare for its expected counteroffensive.
rm, dh/msh (AP, AFP, dpa, Portal)