Kyiv: Ukraine air defences have shot down 35 Iranian-made drones over Kyiv in Russia’s latest night-time assault. However, Russian attacks across Ukraine by the Kremlin’s forces killed four civilians, officials said Monday. The bombardments came as Moscow enforced tight security on the eve of traditional Red Square commemorations marking the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.
Russian media said that at least 21 Russian cities have cancelled military parades. It is the main part of ‘Victory Day’ celebrations across Russia – on May 9 for the first time in years. Regional officials cited ‘security concerns’ or vaguely referred to ‘the current situation’.
Parades will go ahead in Russia’s largest cities, Moscow and St Petersburg. But the use of drones has been banned in both cities ahead of Victory Day.
In St Petersburg, which is often referred to as ‘northern Venice’ for its network of rivers and canals, using jet skis in certain parts of the city has also been prohibited until May 10. In Moscow car sharing services have been temporarily barred from the city centre — drivers will not be able to start or finish rides there.
Five people in the capital were injured by falling drone debris, according to Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration. Air raid alarms sounded for more than three hours during the night.
Drone wreckage struck a two-story apartment building in Kyiv’s western Svyatoshynskyi district, while other debris struck a car parked nearby, setting it on fire, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a Telegram post.
Facing economic sanctions and limits on its supply chains due to its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has routinely turned to Iranian Shahed drones to bolster its firepower.
Russian shelling of 127 targets across northern, southern and eastern parts of Ukraine killed three civilians, the Defence Ministry said. The Kremlin’s forces used tanks, drones, mortars, warplanes, multiple rocket launchers and surface-to-air missiles to bombard Ukraine, the ministry informed.
Russian long-range bombers launched eight cruise missiles at Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, authorities said. One person was killed and three wounded. Some of the Soviet-era cruise missiles fired at the Odesa region self-destructed or fell into the sea before reaching their targets, according to Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuri Ihnat.
In addition, six Russian rockets also struck the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk during the night, a regional official reported Monday. The missiles targetted the city’s industrial zone, but caused no casualties, Donetsk regional governor Petro Kyrylenko said in a Telegram post. May 9 is normally a bank holiday in Ukraine, too, but not this year, because of the war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday he had sent a draft bill to parliament proposing a Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in World War II May 8 and a Day of Europe May 9, further distancing Kyiv from Moscow.
Zelenskyy equated Russia’s goals in Ukraine to those of the Nazis. “Unfortunately, evil has returned,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram. “Although now it is another aggressor, the goal is the same — enslavement or destruction.”
