Ukraine is thoroughly preparing for a new counteroffensive against Russian forces because the attack is “very important” and will have to “succeed,” the country’s prime minister said.
Denys Shmyhal told Sky News that the long-awaited operation would only come when the time was right, but gave no indication of when it might be.
As Russian President Vladimir Putin marks Victory Day, which marks the Soviet Union’s defeat by Nazi Germany in World War II, the Ukrainian prime minister said the most important day for Kiev would be the day of defeat of the Russian invasion.
Read more about this story from our Security and Defense Editor, Deborah Haynes, here. . .
Images begin to arrive from Moscow this morning of Russian servicemen marching past the reduced Victory Day parade and army cars marching down a street.
Thousands of other people can line Moscow’s Red Square to watch the parade and hear Vladimir Putin give a speech around 8 a. m.
By Diana Magnay, Moscow correspondent
This Victory Day will be a low-key affair than usual.
No aerial demonstration, fewer troops marching through Red Square than in previous years and no march of the Immortal Regiment, a much-loved “tradition” that was followed recently in which Russians march through the streets of their respective cities with the symbols of their ancestors who fought and died in the global World War II, or as Russia calls it the Great Patriotic War.
The Kremlin said it was a precautionary measure, raising security concerns.
Given the series of security incidents, from drone strikes and exercise derailments to car bombs and, of course, drones over the Kremlin, this would make sense.
However, another, perhaps more credible explanation is that many Russians might this be an opportune time to scroll through photos of the children they lost in Ukraine and is a scene the Kremlin should avoid at all costs.
Let it never be known how many other people fought and died because of their president’s fateful adventurism in Ukraine.
Whether you consider that the drone strikes on the Kremlin last week were an embarrassing success ahead of Victory Day carried out in the very center of Moscow through Ukraine (more likely) or anti-regime elements (less likely) or a false flag operation through Russia itself (possible because everything is), decisions to restrict Victory Day matches were promoted in advance.
However, the idea that this year’s celebrations, and this is a massive national holiday in the country, can be hit by a “terakt”, as Russians call it, a terrorist act, is alive and kicking.
The explosion of a car bomb that nearly killed nationalist Zakhar Prilepin over the weekend and killed another guy in the car with him adds to the general feeling of nervousness. Prilepin is the third ultranationalist attacked since last summer and the only one to survive.
To some extent, all this serves the Kremlin’s goals. Pushing other Russians into the narrative that Ukraine is engaged in a crusade of terror in Russia is helping to entrench the (false) claim that this is an existential war for the motherland. Never brain the daily movements in Ukrainian cities where any damage to civilian infrastructure is immediately attributed to failures of air defense. These attacks are constantly justified through the Russian state media apparatus as part of Putin’s “special army operation”; the concept that Ukraine could be ambitious enough to retaliate, even if it does not admit it, is presented as a step too far and would possibly only have been driven through the pernicious hand of the West.
Kiev is preparing for its long-awaited counteroffensive. Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiiy Reznikov said in a recent interview that he fears his forces’ targets are too high. In fact, Russia hopes that it will, empowered and reinvigorated Ukraine could achieve.
These stripped-down celebrations testify to this, as well as the slight relief in the numbers and the cancellation of parades in some 22 cities, are a nod to the loss of men and apparatus suffered by Russia. Most years, the Kremlin allows access to foreign media. This year, this list of accreditations has not been published. It is as if the Kremlin press office lacks the big appointment of the annual calendar.
Vladimir Putin was in charge of compiling -at the last minute- an anthology of regional presidents for the occasion, most of them from Central Asia. For one thing, it may just be a way to refute any suggestion you make of a remote figure; On the other hand, it looks a bit like an insurance policy.
“[They] must kill as many civilians as possible,” Mr. Popko said.
He said none were injured or killed in the attacks, according to initial information.
Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said in a separate Telegram post that debris had fallen into a space in the community of Holosiivskyi in the city’s southwest.
There were no casualties, he said.
Welcome back to our shock in Ukraine.
We’ll bring you all the latest news about the war so far, but before that, here’s what you want to know about the day after:
Russian forces have been given new responsibilities from their leaders to “advance somewhere on a safe date,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his evening speech.
The Ukrainian leader said Ukraine’s good fortune in protecting against Russian aggression is definitely an “antidote to further aggression” and that the world needed to see a “free country capable of protecting freedom from invaders. “
“If we can do it, then others can do it,” he said.
Zelenskyy then thanked the troops in the fiercest areas.
He continued: “The occupiers have again been given new responsibilities from their leaders to advance somewhere on a safe date.
“Well, it just means that despite all the dates, our heroes will destroy, as always, the occupier. “
The EU executive has proposed blacklisting several Chinese companies and restricting exports to countries deemed concerned about circumventing Russian trade restrictions as part of new sanctions against Moscow.
The EU’s 27 member states – all of which will have to agree for new sanctions to be imposed – will have a first discussion on Wednesday on the proposal by the European Commission’s foreign policy unit, several diplomatic sources said today.
The proposal focuses on addressing circumvention of existing industrial restrictions through third countries, the appeals said, after the EU singled out China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates as Central Asian and Caucasus countries as possible culprits.
Seven in China would be subject to an asset freeze in the EU, diplomats familiar with the proposal said, in what would be the first time the bloc has punished China over allegations of Beijing’s role in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Today, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said China urges the EU not to go down the “wrong path” and is in a position to take measures for its rights and interests.
The latest attacks in Ukraine show how “desperate” Russia is over its obvious lack of progress on the battlefield, the former US military special adviser told Sky News. U. S. Secretary of State for Europe, Mark Voyger.
My Voyger said the moves were a “desperate attempt” to intimidate the Ukrainian population and that Russia’s attacks had “failed. “
He said Ukrainian forces were “more effective” and that their counteroffensive was looming “in a matter of days or weeks. “
The former adviser also said he thought Russia would be “more desperate” over time.
We report on the wave of drone and missile movements introduced into Ukrainian cities.
Commenting on the situation, Civitas’ director of defence and security, Robert Clark, told Sky News that with Russia’s Victory Day celebrations scheduled for tomorrow, the Kremlin’s pressure on the Russian military to achieve some sort of good fortune on the battlefield continues.
He said: “This is the explanation for why Russia seeks to divert attention from its battlefield struggles by ruthlessly attacking Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure. “
Clark went on to say that the difference between this year’s Victory Day and last year’s is that Ukraine can protect itself from attacks “more absolutely now. “
“Ukraine complex militarily last year,” he added.
These photographs show charred buildings and smoke rising from the east of the town of Bakhmut after shelling in the domain today.
Ukrainian commanders have vowed to maintain control over the city despite Russian willingness to take it in time for tomorrow’s Victory Day holiday marking the defeat of Nazi Germany.