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Ukraine’s air defenses shot down 35 Iranian-made drones in Kyiv in the latest nighttime attack on Russia, as an attack on Ukraine by Kremlin forces killed four civilians, officials said Monday.
The bombing came as Moscow imposed tight security on the eve of the traditional Red Square commemoration marking the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.
Five people in the Ukrainian 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 that night.
Drone wreckage hit a two-story apartment building in Kyiv’s western Svyatoshynskyi district, while other debris hit a car parked nearby, setting it on fire, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a Telegram post.
Russian strikes from 127 targets in northern, southern and eastern Ukraine killed three civilians, Ukraine’s defense ministry said.
Kremlin forces are using tanks, drones, mortars, fighter jets, multiple rocket launchers and surface-to-air missiles to bombard Ukraine, the report said.
A Russian long-range bomber launched up to eight cruise missiles over Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, authorities said. One person was killed and three were injured.
Several Soviet-era cruise missiles fired at the Odesa region destroyed themselves or fell into the sea before reaching their targets, according to Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuri Ihnat.
Russia’s Victory Day plans are limited
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday he had sent a draft bill to parliament proposing the Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in World War II on May 8 and Europe Day on May 9, moving Kyiv further away from Moscow.
Zelenskyy equates Russia’s goals in Ukraine with those of the Nazis.
“Unfortunately, evil has returned,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram. “Even if it is now another aggressor, the goal is the same – slavery or destruction.”
Meanwhile, Russian media counted at least 21 Russian cities that canceled military parades – a staple of Russia’s Victory Day celebrations – for the first time in years. Regional officials cited “security concerns” or vaguely referred to as “the current situation” when they canceled the plan on May 9.
Parades will take place in Russia’s largest cities, Moscow and St. But the use of drones has been banned in both cities ahead of Victory Day, and in the Russian capital, car-sharing services have been temporarily banned from the city centre.
Meanwhile, Russian-backed authorities have begun evacuating residents of Tokmak, a town in the frontline Zaporizhzhia region, to the Black Sea coast, Ukraine’s General Staff said. People working for Kremlin-appointed local authorities, as well as children and education workers, were moved to Berdyansk, a Russian-held coastal city about 100 kilometers to the southeast, he said.
The report comes just days after Yevhen Balitsky, the Russian-appointed governor of the partially controlled Zaporizhzhia region, ordered the evacuation of civilians from 18 settlements on Friday, including Enerhodar, which neighbors the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
A Russian long-range bomber launched up to eight cruise missiles over Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, authorities said.
Speculation has swirled for months about the timing and focus of Ukraine’s spring offensive, with some analysts saying Kyiv may try to strike south into Zaporizhzhia to split Russian forces and cut Moscow’s land link to occupied Crimea.
Wagner remained in Bakhmut
In a separate development, the Russian military command has promised the Wagner Group, a private military company, additional ammunition and equipment to attack the eastern city of Bakhmut, Wagner founder Yevgeniy Prigozhin said in an audio statement published by the press service Sunday.
Prigozhin was threatened, that Wagner’s fighters could pull out of the embattled city, where they had been for weeks the main attack force of Russia. He blamed the Russian military command for giving birth to Wagner ammunition and causing heavy losses.
The threat marked another flareup in Prigozhin’s long-running dispute with Russia’s regular military over credit and tactics in the war. In a statement Sunday, Prigozhin claimed that Russian defense officials had since committed to providing the mercenaries with “ammunition and equipment, as needed to continue” and gave Wagner a free hand to take operational decisions in Bakhmut.
A Ukrainian military spokesman was scoffed at Prigozhin’s claims about the lack of ammunition, saying that the problem of Wagner in Bakhmut instead of the high kill rate and not being able to replenish its ranks.
“There is no shortage of shells. This is absolutely not true,” said Serhii Cherevaty, a spokesman for the Eastern Group of Forces, on Ukrainian TV. “There are more than enough shells to fire at our position.”
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