Ukraine's human rights commissioner Lyudmila Denisova said around 1,185,000 Ukrainians have been forcibly removed to Russia while the US said they had "indications that Ukrainians are being taken against their will into Russia."
ADVERTISEMENT
Vladimir Putin blamed the West for "forcing" Russia to take military action in Ukraine, at Moscow's annual Victory Day parade commemorating the World War II victory over Nazi Germany.
But the Russian leader made no major announcement in his speech. President Zelenskyy, meanwhile, said Ukraine would not let Russia "own the victory over Nazism" in 1945, highlighting his own country's role in it.
Meanwhile the US have claimed they have "indications that Ukrainians are being taken against their will into Russia" after a Ukrainian official said more than one million Ukrainians were deported there.
See how Monday unfolded in the blog below.
${title}
Live ended
- Russia celebrated the defeat of Nazi Germany with a large-scale military parade in Moscow's Red Square earlier today.
President Vladimir Putin cast Moscow’s military action in Ukraine as a forced response to Western policies in a speech at the parade. However, despite some fears, he didn't announce a scaling up of Russian military operations or a general mobilisation.
Ukraine will not let Russia "own the victory over Nazism" in 1945, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said, highlighting Ukraine's own role in the victory. "We won then, we will win now," he added.
The Ukrainian Parliament's Commissioner for Human Rights, Lyudmila Denisova, has said over a million Ukrainian citizens have been deported to Russia.
Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that the US has "indications that Ukrainians are being taken against their will into Russia."
Russian forces stormed the Azovstal steel plant in Ukraine's strategic port of Mariupol on Monday and stepped up missile strikes elsewhere, Ukrainian officials said.
Meanwhile, European Council President Charles Michel was forced to seek shelter during a surprise visit to Odesa, as missiles hit the nearby area.
Talks aiming at agreeing an EU-wide ban on Russian oil imports have gone into a sixth day. Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria are resisting approval, demanding special dispensations.
Anti-war protesters hit Russia's ambassador to Poland with red paint as he went to lay flowers at a cemetery in Warsaw where Red Army soldiers killed during WWII are buried.
The UN Human Rights Council will hold a special meeting later this week on the situation in Ukraine, including "mass casualties" in Mariupol, as dozens of countries backed a Ukrainian move for the session.
Russia has been criticised for the bombing of a school used as shelter in eastern Ukraine, which has left more than 60 feared dead.
That's all for our live blog tonight. We'll be back at 6:00 am CET with the latest updates on the war in Ukraine.
Macron and Scholz offer support to Ukraine in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin
Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz declared their "full support" for Ukraine on Monday evening by going together under the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, a symbol of the Cold War.
The gate was illuminated in the colours of the Ukrainian flag on May 9.
Ukrainians being taken 'against their will' into Russia: Pentagon
Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby tells reporters that the US has "indications that Ukrainians are being taken against their will into Russia," adding that Russian forces are making "incremental" gains but are coming up against "very stiff Ukrainian resistance."
Kirby said that the US assesses "that the Russians continue to make incremental progress, moving down from the north, pushing down into the Donbas area."
He said however that it is "slow and it's uneven, and they continue to meet a very stiff Ukrainian resistance."
Greece reopens its embassy in Kyiv
Greece reopened its embassy in Kyiv on Monday, "in a highly symbolic gesture" to support "Ukrainians and the Greek community" living in the country, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias announced.
The minister underlined that Athens "does everything to contribute to the resolution of the crisis in Ukraine and the humanitarian crisis", and "commits to actively participate in the reconstruction of the country".
(AFP)
UN chief in Moldova amid Transnistria tension
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said during an official visit to non-NATO member Moldova on Monday that the consequences of Russia’s war against Ukraine escalating are “too frightening to contemplate.”
Guterres, who arrived in Moldova’s capital Chisinau on Monday, said in a joint press conference with Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita, that the impact of Russia’s war in neighbouring Ukraine “is profound and far-reaching.”
The UN chief’s visit to Moldova, one of Europe’s poorest countries, which has a population of about 2.6 million people, follows a series of unsettling incidents that have rocked Moldova’s pro-Russia breakaway region of Transnistria, which has put officials in Chisinau on high alert.
In late April, three men launched grenades at the region’s state security office, and two large broadcast antennas were downed a day later. On Friday, Police in Transnistria said explosive devices were dropped from a drone leaving 1-metre-deep craters near a village.
“I am deeply concerned about the continuation and possible spread of the war Russia is waging in Ukraine,” Guterres said, adding that Moldova’s sovereignty and territorial integrity “must not be threatened or undermined.”
Transnistria, a small strip of land with a population of about 470,000, has been under the control of separatist authorities since a 1992 war with Moldova. Russia bases about 1,500 troops in the breakaway region, ostensibly as peacekeepers. No casualties were reported in the incidents.
(AP)
Lithuania FM calls for regime change in Russia
Lithuania’s foreign minister said on Monday that removing Russian President Vladimir Putin from power would be the only way to protect the West and its allies from future threats from Moscow.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said Putin’s Victory Day speech was “underwhelming” and that the “gloomy faces” of generals and others were signs of failing in the Ukraine war in an interview with the AP.
He said a wounded Putin may be even more dangerous and that the only way to remove the threat is to remove him.
“From our standpoint, up until the point the current regime is not in power, the countries surrounding it will be, to some extent, in danger," Landsbergis said.
"Not just Putin but the whole regime because, you know, one might change Putin and might change his inner circle but another Putin might rise into his place."
(AP)
Ship loaded with Russian coal docks in Spanish port of Gijon
A Maltese-flagged ship carrying Russian coal and petroleum coke has docked in the northern Spanish port of Gijon, port authorities said on Monday.
Another Maltese-flagged ship, loaded with Russian crude, docked in Cartagena, southern Spain, on Friday, authorities confirmed.
The European Union approved sanctions against imports of coal, wood, chemicals and other products such as vodka from Russia on April 8 in a bid to cut trade after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, although the sanctions are not yet fully enforced.
Russian ships are banned from calling in Spanish ports, a transport ministry spokesperson said on Monday, but the EU ban on vessels from other countries loaded with Russian goods is not in force yet, she added.
(Reuters)
Macron says Ukraine's process of joining EU could take 'decades'
French President Emmanuel Macron said that the process of joining the European Union is likely to take several years, if not several decades.
"Even if we grant Ukraine candidate status tomorrow...and I hope that we will quickly, for membership in our European Union, we all know perfectly well that the process allowing them to join will take several years, in truth probably several decades," Macron said.
He suggested the creation of a European community for greater cooperation on a host of topics that would include Ukraine.
Macron warns Russia's 'humiliation' won't bring peace
French President Emmanuel Macron says that Russia and Ukraine would have to come to a negotiated truce and that peace efforts would not be served by Russia's "humiliation".
"Tomorrow we'll have a peace to build, let's never forget that," he told reporters. "We will have to do this with Ukraine and Russia around the table.
(AFP)
Over a million Ukrainians deported to Russia — Ukraine rights commissioner
The Ukrainian Parliament's Commissioner for Human Rights, Lyudmila Denisova, on Monday said that over a million Ukrainian citizens have been deported to Russia.
Denisova said among the 1,185,000 Ukrainians who have been forcibly removed from the country across the border are some 200,000 children.
"Violations of our citizens' fundamental rights and freedoms continue in the occupied territories. First of all, this is the right to life," she said.
She added that over 20,000 Ukrainians have been sent from Mariupol to "filtration camps" in the separatist-controlled east.
"Our citizens are taken there for the filtration procedure so that some of the citizens who do not pass the so-called filtration can be taken away. The fate of these people is unknown to us. Those people who pass the filtration will be transported to the Russian Federation. They will be forcibly deported.
Denisova claimed at the end of March that 400,000 Ukrainians had by that stage been forcibly moved to Russia.
(AP, Euronews)
EU's von der Leyen to visit Hungary to try to break oil ban dispute
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will visit Hungary on Monday to discuss "the security of Europe's energy supply" with Viktor Orban, her spokesperson said, as Budapest blocks a proposed embargo on Russian oil.
The meeting will take place during a working dinner at the Carmelite monastery in Budapest where Orban has his offices, said Bertalan Havasi, head of the prime minister's press office.
A landlocked country dependent on oil purchases from Russia, Hungary is asking its EU partners for guarantees on its supplies to agree to a sixth package of sanctions against Russia, including a halt to oil purchases from the country.
"There is still no proposal we could accept, and Hungary’s stance has remained unchanged," Hungarian State Secretary Zoltán Kovács said earlier in a short statement to Euronews.
Click here for the full story on the oil ban dispute.
(AFP/ Euronews)
UN Human Rights Council to address Mariupol 'mass casualties'
The UN Human Rights Council will hold a special session on Ukraine on Thursday, an official said, after Kyiv called for a review of the situation there, including reports of mass casualties in Mariupol.
Among at least 55 signatory countries to a letter requesting the meeting were France, Germany, the UK, Poland, Turkey and the United States.
Diplomats told Reuters that the meeting could include a resolution that would task the newly formed Commission of Inquiry into the war with providing a detailed report to the council later this year
"Together, we are sending another strong message to Putin and his clique of war criminals: you are isolated like never before," Ukrainian Ambassador to the UN Yevheniia Filipenko said in a video posted on Twitter.
Russia was suspended from the Human Rights Council where it was one of 47 voting members last month, prompting Moscow to quit.
(Reuters/ AFP)
Brandenburg Gate to be lit in Ukraine's colours
The German government says Berlin’s iconic Brandenburg Gate is one of many prominent buildings across Europe that will be illuminated Monday in the yellow and blue colors of the Ukrainian flag.
Government spokesman Wolfgang Buechner told reporters in Berlin that the decision to do so was taken some time ago and there was no link to a ban on flying Russian or Ukrainian flags near WWII memorials on May 8-9 imposed by police in the German capital.
Police argued the ban was needed to prevent possible public unrest. Supporters of Ukraine and the country’s ambassador had strongly criticized that decision in light of Russia’s attack on Ukraine (see earlier post).
Buechner said projecting the Ukrainian flag onto the Brandenburg Gate was a “sign of solidarity” to show that the European Union is on the side of Ukraine.
(AP/ Euronews)
Talks aiming at agreeing an EU-wide ban on Russian oil imports have gone into a sixth day.
Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria are resisting approval and demanding special dispensations to accommodate domestic needs.
More details from Euronews Brussels Bureau:
Hungary, Slovakia, Czechia and Bulgaria resist EU ban on Russian oil
Discussions between EU ambassadors are continuing on Monday to reach an agreement to phase out all imports of Russian oil. #EuropeNewsProtesters hit Russian ambassador to Poland with red paint
Russia’s ambassador to Poland was hit with red paint thrown as he prepared to mark a World War II anniversary in Warsaw.
Protesters carried Ukrainian flags and chanted “fascist” and “murderer” over Russia's war in Ukraine.
Read the full story here:
Russian ambassador to Poland hit with red paint by anti-war protesters
Sergey Andreev had planned to pay tribute to Soviet soldiers at a Warsaw cemetery as Russia marks Victory Day.Ukraine says Russian forces storming Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol
Russian forces stormed the Azovstal steel plant in Ukraine's strategic port of Mariupol on Monday and stepped up missile strikes elsewhere, Ukrainian officials said, as President Vladimir Putin oversaw a parade of military firepower in Moscow.
Azovstal, a vast complex of building and underground tunnels, is the last holdout for Ukrainian troops in Mariupol, whose capture would link Russian-seized areas in southern and eastern Ukraine and cut Ukraine off from the Azov Sea.
Putin has already declared victory in Mariupol but control of the steel plant would be a symbolic achievement on the 75th day of a war that has cost many Russian lives and isolated its economy, but failed to capture any major city.
Putin had told his defence minister not to storm Azovstal to avoid loss of Russian lives but Ukraine's defence ministry said on Monday Russian forces backed by tanks and artillery were conducting "storming operations".
Moscow has denied previous Ukrainian allegations of storming the complex, where civilians have also been sheltering.
(Reuters)
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen held a videoconference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier on Monday, where the two leaders discussed Ukraine’s pathway to becoming an EU candidate country.
In a Twitter post, von der Leyen said that she was looking forward to receiving the answers to the EU membership questionnaire from Ukraine, and that the European Commission would aim to deliver its opinion as soon as June.
EU Council president forced to seek shelter during visit to Odesa
On a surprise visit to Odesa on Monday European Council President Charles Michel was forced to seek shelter, an EU official said.
According to this source, during a meeting between Michel and Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Chmygal the participants had to interrupt their discussion to take shelter, because of missile strikes against the region.
Charles Michel for his part wrote on Twitter that he had come to Odesa to celebrate Europe Day. "You are not alone. The EU is on your side," he said.
According to the European official, Michel also noted during his visit the impact of the war on global supply chains, particularly with regard to cereals, of which many tons are blocked in the port of Odesa due to the Russian blockade of the Black Sea.
“I saw silos full of grain, wheat and corn ready for export,” Michel tweeted. “This badly needed food is stranded because of the Russian war and blockade of Black sea ports. Causing dramatic consequences for vulnerable countries. We need a global response.”
Ukraine is a global grain exporter, and UN officials have warned that failure for those products to ship will hurt food security in importing countries, especially poorer ones in Africa and elsewhere.
(AFP/ AP)
Russian television menus hacked to show anti-war messages
Russian satellite television menus were altered on Monday to show viewers in Moscow messages about the war in Ukraine: "You have blood on your hands", according to screenshots obtained by Reuters.
The photographs showed Moscow satellite television menus on Victory Day, when Russia celebrated the 77th anniversary of Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany, with every channel showing anti-war slogans.
"You have the blood of thousands of Ukrainians and hundreds of dead children on your hands," said one slogan.
"The TV and the authorities are lying. No to war."
The slogans appeared just before the Victory Day parade on Red Square at which President Vladimir Putin compared the war in Ukraine to the Soviet battle to defeat Adolf Hitler in World War Two.
It was not immediately clear how the slogans appeared. Interfax news agency said the slogans appeared on cable television too after they were hacked.
A Russian news website also showed anti-war material that was deeply critical of Putin. It was not immediately clear how the negative articles appeared. They swiftly disappeared.
(Reuters)
German police confiscate 25-metre-long Ukrainian flag
Kyiv has hit out at German police after officers in Berlin confiscated a huge Ukrainian flag that was unfurled at the Soviet Memorial in the German capital on the eve of Russia's Victory Day, which marks its defeat of Nazi Germany during World War II.
Officials in Germany said neither Russian nor Ukrainian flags were allowed to ensure commemorations stayed peaceful.
However, Ukraine's foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, criticised the police's approach.
"Berlin made a mistake by banning Ukrainian symbols. It is deeply wrong to treat them on an equal footing with Russian symbols. It is an attack on all those who are currently defending Europe and Germany against Russian aggression."
Around 200 take part in pro-Russian march in Belgrade
About 200 people took part in a parade of the "Immortal Regiment" organised by the Russian Embassy in Belgrade on Monday, to mark the victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.
The participants marched in silence, periodically broken by "hurrahs", carrying portraits of their loved ones who fell in the fighting.
At the head of the column one individual carried a large letter "Z", a symbol of the Russian troops engaged in the invasion of Ukraine. Another carried a life-size cardboard portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Others waved Russian flags, as well as Soviet-era flags.
The parade went to the cemetery of the liberators in Belgrade, where the representatives of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Serbia laid wreaths. Those from Ukraine had done so a day earlier.
"I came to honour the memory of my father who participated in the liberation of Belgrade," said Nebojsa Radic, a 70-year-old pensioner from Valjevo.
"It will last a bit longer but I hope we will get real peace like our ancestors," he said, referring to the conflict in Ukraine.
(AFP)
Russia claims to have destroyed a US-manufactured counter-battery radar station and three Ukrainian aircraft
In its latest daily briefing, Russia’s Defence Ministry claims to have destroyed two command posts and one battery of Grad rocket launchers near Popasnaya, as well as a US-made counter-battery radar station near Zolotoye.
In addition, it claimed that tactical and army aviation had neutralised 52 sites with manpower or military equipment concentrations, as well as an ammunition depot near Glukhov.
Russian air defence also shot down three Ukrainian aircraft, two MiG-29s and a Su-25, and a dozen unmanned aerial drones overnight, it said.
The claims could not be independently verified.
Russian ambassador to Poland hit by red paint
Sergey Andreev, Russia's ambassador to Poland, was hit by red paint earlier today as he went to lay flowers at the cemetery of Soviet soldiers in Warsaw.
Anti-war protesters threw the paint at Andreev as he arrived at a cemetery to pay his respects to Red Army soldiers who died during World War II. Other protesters carried Ukrainian flags and chanted “fascist”.
From the Washington Post's Mary Ilyushina:
Putin's critics pour scorn on Victory Day speech
Here are some of the reactions to the Russian leader's military parade address:
Senior Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak: "NATO countries were not going to attack Russia. Ukraine did not plan to attack Crimea."
British Defence Minister Ben Wallace: "There can be no victory day, only dishonour and surely defeat in Ukraine... He (Putin) must come to terms with how he's lost in the long run, and he's absolutely lost. Russia is not what it was."
Kira Yarmysh, exiled spokesperson for jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, in a tweet: "An old man, mad in his self-isolation, stands alone on the podium because no one came to be with him, coughs and says something about the Nazis of NATO. I don't think even the most devoted Putin supporter will believe that this is an image of victory."
Exiled critic of the Kremlin and former Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, in a tweet: "Today is a holiday that I have been celebrating since childhood. On May 9, 1945, the Nazis who bombed Kyiv at 4 a.m. on June 22, 1941, capitulated. At 4 a.m. on February 24, 2022, under the signs of fascist evil spirits, Kyiv was again bombed. The descendants of some of the victors. Who have become fascists. Forget May 9. This is not your holiday."
Allies of jailed political activist Andrei Pivovarov tweeted from his account: "Putin laid flowers at memorials to the Hero Cities of Kyiv and Odesa. No comment required."
Gennady Gudkov, an exiled former lawmaker and member of the liberal opposition, tweeted: "Putin repeated quotes from the zombie drawer, not daring anything more serious. So the Kremlin no longer has any tricks in store. Now Putin's defeat is a matter of time!"
Michael McFaul, former US ambassador to Russia, tweeted: "On Victory Day, Putin is losing his war in Ukraine. Time for Russian soldiers to go home."
Putin's forces 'corrupt memory of past sacrifices' — UK minister
Britain’s defence secretary says Russian leader Vladimir Putin and his generals are mirroring the tyranny of the Nazis in World War II and repeating the errors of the last century’s totalitarian regimes as they pursue the illegal invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking on the day Russia celebrated the anniversary of its victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, Wallace said Putin had hijacked the nation’s “proud history” of repelling fascism to justify his attack on a sovereign state.
“Their unprovoked, illegal, senseless and self-defeating invasion of Ukraine, their attacks against innocent civilians on their homes, their widespread atrocities, including the deliberate targeting of women and children, they all corrupt the memory of past sacrifices and Russia’s once proud global reputation,’’ Wallace said at the National Army Museum in London.
Wallace spoke as Putin reviewed Russian troops and military hardware parading through Moscow’s Red Square on what is known as Victory Day in Russia. The parade has an ulterior political motive, Wallace said.
“Really what President Put wants is the Russian people and the world to be awed and intimidated by the ongoing memorial to militarism,” he said.
Two detained in Siberia for carrying anti-war signs
At least two people have reportedly been detained in Russia’s Siberian region on Monday for carrying anti-war banners.
OVD-Info, a prominent legal aid group that tracks political arrests, said that one person was picketing in the Siberian city of Irkutsk with a placard that said “Peace”, and another person in Novosibirsk was detained during the Immortal Regiment march in the city for carrying a banner that said “I’m ashamed of you, grandchildren. We fought for peace, you chose war.”
Immortal Regiment marches on Monday are taking place in many Russian cities, with Russians carrying portraits of their relatives who took part in World War II.
In another Siberian region, Zabaykalye, Gov. Alexander Osipov brought a portrait of a soldier who died in Ukraine to the Immortal Regiment march in the city of Chita.
(AP)
Peace talks with Ukraine have not stopped, says Russian negotiator
Russian chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said on Monday that peace talks with Ukraine had not stopped and that they were being held remotely, according to the interfax news agency.
Moscow has accused Kyiv of stalling the talks and using reports of atrocities committed by Russian troops in Ukraine to undermine negotiations. Russia denies targeting civilians in what it calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine.
(Reuters)
Key passages of Putin's speech blaming the West
Reuters has translated some of the key passages of Vladimir Putin’s speech this morning in Red Square, in which he blamed the West for the fighting in Ukraine:
"Despite disagreements in international relations, Russia has always advocated the creation of a system of equal and indivisible security, a system that is vital for the entire international community.
"In December last year, we proposed the conclusion of an agreement on security guarantees. Russia called on the West to enter an honest dialogue, in search of reasonable compromise solutions, to take each other’s interests into account. It was all in vain."
"NATO countries did not want to listen to us, meaning that they in fact had entirely different plans, and we saw this. Openly, preparations were under way for another punitive operation in Donbas, the invasion of our historical lands, including Crimea.
"In Kyiv, they announced the possible acquisition of nuclear weapons, the NATO bloc began actively taking military control of territories adjacent to ours. As such, an absolutely unacceptable threat to us was systematically created, and moreover directly on our borders.
"Everything indicated that a clash with the neo-Nazis, the Banderites [Ukrainian Nazi sympathisers], backed by the United States and their junior partners, was inevitable.”
"We saw military infrastructure being ramped up, hundreds of military advisers working and regular deliveries of modern weapons from NATO. (The level of) danger was increasing every day. Russia preventively rebuffed the aggressor. It was necessary, timely and ... right. The decision of a sovereign, strong, independent country.”
Satellite imagery confirms strike on school
Satellite images analysed by The Associated Press confirm that a school in eastern Ukraine where some 60 people are feared killed in a Russian airstrike has been destroyed, the news agency reports.
The photos, taken by Planet Labs PBC, show the school in Bilohorivka in Ukraine’s Luhansk region standing on Saturday. An image taken Sunday shows the same building flattened.
Ukrainian officials say some 90 people had taken shelter in the school before it was hit. Around 30 escaped, leading officials to fear 60 people had been killed.
On Sunday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “appalled” by the reported airstrike.
Zelenskyy calls Russian airstrikes on Ukrainian cities imitation of Nazi behaviour
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that Russian airstrikes on Odessa and other cities are an imitation of how the Nazi's tried to bombard and destroy European cities during the Second World War.
Meanwhile, the deportation of more than 500,000 Ukrainians to Russia and so-called 'filtration camps' set up by Russian troops in parts of occupied Ukraine are also imitations of German behaviour, he said.
No major new announcements in Putin's Victory Day speech
Despite fears that today’s speech by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow's Red Square could mark the start of another escalation in the fighting in Ukraine, with a potential general mobilisation or a formal declaration of war, the speech passed without any major new announcements.
Instead, Putin used his speech in front of over 10,000 Russian soldiers to justify the invasion of Ukraine, and to claim that it was brought about by the actions of the West, which he claimed was planning an attack on Russian-held Crimea.
“Nato countries did not want to listen to us. They had different plans, and we saw it. They were planning an invasion into our historic lands, including Crimea … Russia gave a preemptive rebuff to aggression, it was a forced, timely and only right decision,” he said.
Bono praises Ukraine's fight for 'freedom'
Irish rock star Bono praised Ukraine's fight for "freedom" during a performance at a central Kyiv metro station on Sunday, where the U2 frontman also delivered his own prayer "for peace." The mini-concert took place as air raid sirens sounded in the Ukrainian capital.
Watch some of the footage below.
Putin says military action in Ukraine a response to Western policies
Russian President Vladimir Putin has cast Moscow’s military action in Ukraine as a forced response to Western policies.
Speaking at a military parade Monday marking the World War II victory over the Nazis, Putin drew parallels between the Red Army’s fighting against Nazi troops and the Russian forces’ action in Ukraine. He said that the campaign in Ukraine was a timely and necessary move to ward off a potential aggression.
He added that the Russian troops were fighting for the country’s security in Ukraine and observed a minute of silence to honour the troops who fell in combat.
(AP)
Zelenskyy pushes back against Russia's Victory Day celebrations
Ukraine will not let Russia "own the victory over Nazism" in 1945, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday, the day Russia celebrates victory in World War II with great fanfare.
"We are proud of our predecessors who, together with other peoples within the framework of the anti-Hitler coalition, defeated Nazism. We will not let anyone annex this victory, appropriate it," he said in a video message, which shows him walking down Kyiv's central avenue.
"We won then, we will win now," he added, referring to Russia's invasion of Ukraine since February 24.
(AFP)
Some in Russia fear Putin will use Victory Day speech to declare full-fledged war
Impeccably straight columns of soldiers will march through Red Square on Monday as they do every year on Victory Day. Tanks, armoured personnel carriers and transports carrying huge intercontinental ballistic missiles will rattle across the paving stones. But this year’s observance of Russia’s most important patriotic holiday carries exceptional weight.
The annual show in Red Square commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany has become so ritualised that one year’s parade is barely distinguishable from others. A previously unseen piece of equipment might appear; the medal-festooned World War II veterans in the viewing stands become frailer and fewer in number each year. Its predictability can dilute its emotional power.
This year, as Russian troops fight gruelling battles in Ukraine and unleash torrents of missiles and bombs, few Russians are likely to be dulled by the parade’s rituals. Instead, they will watch it for signs of what could come next in the conflict.
Some Russians fear President Vladimir Putin will use his speech at the parade to declare the “special military operation” in Ukraine — as the Kremlin insists it be called — as a full-fledged war.
That declaration would precede a broad mobilisation of troops to bolster Russia’s forces.
Human rights groups report a spike in calls from people asking about laws concerning mobilisation and their rights in case of being ordered to join the military.
(AP)
What is Victory Day?
Russia's Victory Day celebrations today are set to take on greater significance than normal amid Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
But which victory does it toast? What happens on the day? How do Moscow and the West view it? And how has the parade evolved over the years?
Read our explainer below to find out more:
US has imposed 2,600 visa restrictions on Russian and Belarusian officials
In a statement released on Sunday, the White House said that the United States has imposed approximately 2,600 visa restrictions on Russian and Belarusian officials "in response to their ongoing efforts to undermine the sovereignty, territorial integrity, or political independence of Ukraine".
The US has also sanctioned eight executives from Sberbank – the largest financial institution in Russia, holding about a third of all bank assets in Russia – as well as twenty-seven executives from Gazprombank, a prominent Russian bank facilitating business by Russia’s Gazprom, one of the largest natural gas exporters in the world.
Meanwhile, Russia’s two major tank plants – Uralvagonzavod Corporation and Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant – have halted work due to lack of foreign components, the statement added.
To date, almost 1,000 private sector companies have left Russia, and reports indicate that more than 200,000 Russians, many of whom are highly skilled, have fled the country, it said.
"All of these costs will compound and intensify over time," the White House said.
Tensions rise as WWII Victory Day parades get underway in Russia
Ukraine’s military is warning that there is a “high probability of missile strikes” amid Russia’s war on the country. The warning came Monday just ahead of Russia’s planned Victory Day parade in Moscow.
The Ukrainian military’s general staff also said that in Russian-controlled areas of Zaporizhzhia, Russian troops had begun the “seizure of personal documents from the local population without good reason.” Ukraine said Russian troops seized the documents to force the local people to take part in Victory Day commemorations there.
Ukraine’s military also warned that Russia had located some 19 battalion tactical groups in Russia’s Belgorod region, just across the border. Those groups likely consist of some 15,200 troops with tanks, missile batteries and other weaponry.
(AP)
Consider using seized Russian assets to rebuild Ukraine, says senior EU official
In an interview with the Financial Times, Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign policy, said that EU capitals should consider seizing frozen Russian foreign exchange reserves to help pay for the cost of rebuilding Ukraine after the war.
Borrell said that in the past the US had taken control of billions of dollars’ worth of assets belonging to the Afghan central bank, in part to potentially compensate victims of terrorism as well as for humanitarian aid for the country, and that it would be logical to consider similar steps with Russia’s reserves.
“I would be very much in favour because it is full of logic,” he told the British newspaper. “We have the money in our pockets, and someone has to explain to me why it is good for the Afghan money and not good for the Russian money.”
The European Commission has predicted that the reconstruction price tag for Ukraine could run into hundreds of billions of euros.
Russia's stockpile of precision-guided munitions likely heavily depleted, says British defence ministry
In its latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine, the British Ministry of Defence has said that Russia’s stockpile of precision-guided munitions has likely been heavily depleted, forcing the use of “readily available but ageing munitions that are less reliable, less accurate and more easily intercepted”.
It added that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has revealed shortcomings in Russia’s ability to conduct precision strikes at scale, with the country subjecting Ukrainian towns and cities to intense and indiscriminate bombardments with little or no regard for civilian casualties.
This comes after reports of more than 60 dead in a school used as a shelter in the eastern village of Bilohorivka on Sunday.
WWII Victory Day celebrations begin in Russia
Victory Day celebrations have begun in Russia, with people in Vladivostok taking to the streets to watch the annual parade that marks Russia's 1945 victory over Nazi Germany.
This year's parades have added significance, and will likely be used to try to justify Russia's war in Ukraine, which has gone on longer and cost far more than Moscow initially expected.
Vladimir Putin is set to preside over the parade in Moscow's Red Square later today.
UK defence minister will call out Putin and his inner circle for 'mirroring fascism' in a speech later today
Vladimir Putin and his inner political circle are “mirroring the fascism” of the Nazis through the invasion of Ukraine, the UK defence secretary will say on Monday morning ahead of the Kremlin’s annual military parade, according to a report in The Guardian.
“Through their invasion of Ukraine, Putin, his inner circle and generals are now mirroring the fascism and tyranny of 70 years ago, repeating the errors of last century’s totalitarian regimes,” Wallace will say in a speech at the National Army Museum in London, according to the British newspaper.
He will add: “Let’s call out the absurdity of Russian generals – resplendent in their manicured parade uniforms and weighed down by their many medals – for being utterly complicit in Putin’s hijacking of their forebears’ proud history of defending against a ruthless invasion; of repelling fascism; of sacrificing themselves for a higher purpose."
Japan to phase out Russian oil imports, joining G7 allies
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday said his country would also begin to phase out Russian oil imports, in unity with other Group of Seven nations, according to the Associated Press.
Leaders from the G7 countries met online on Sunday and later announced their commitment to ban or phase out Russian oil imports, their latest effort to pressure Moscow into ending its months-long war in Ukraine.
“It’s an extremely difficult decision for a country that mostly relies on energy imports, including oil,” Kishida told reporters. “But G7 unity is most important right now.”
Kishida said it will be a gradual and slow process, and that the details and timeline will be decided later, with the process requiring securing alternative energy sources. About 4% of Japanese oil imports come from Russia.
Japan also announced the phasing out of Russian coal imports.
However, Japan will not ban imports from its own stakes in oil and natural gas projects in Russia, including those in Sakhalin, Kishida said.
Worsening attacks could be linked to Victory Day, says Ukraine president
Russian forces pushed forward Monday in their assault on Ukraine, seeking to capture the crucial southern port city of Mariupol as Moscow prepared to celebrate its national Victory Day holiday.
Determined to show a success in a war now in its 11th week, Russian troops have targeted a sprawling seaside steel mill where an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian fighters were making what appeared to be their last stand to save Mariupol from falling.
The mill is the only part of the city not overtaken by the invaders, and its defeat would deprive Ukraine of a vital port and allow Russia to establish a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that worsening attacks could be linked to Victory Day, which marks Russia’s greatest triumph, over Nazi Germany in 1945. Russian President Vladimir Putin may want to proclaim a win in Ukraine when he addresses troops parading on Red Square.
“They have nothing to celebrate,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said of the Russians, speaking on CNN. “They have not succeeded in defeating the Ukrainians. They have not succeeded in dividing the world or dividing NATO. And they have only succeeded in isolating themselves internationally and becoming a pariah state around the globe.”
(AP)
Bombing of school used as shelter leaves more than 60 feared dead
More than 60 people were feared dead Sunday after a Russian bomb flattened a school being used as a shelter, Ukrainian officials said, while Moscow's forces pressed their attack on defenders inside Mariupol's steel plant in an apparent race to capture the city ahead of Russia's Victory Day holiday.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “appalled” by the reported school bombing Saturday in the eastern village of Bilohorivka and called it another reminder that “it is civilians that pay the highest price” in war.
Authorities said about 90 people were sheltering in the basement. Emergency crews found two bodies and rescued 30 people, but "most likely all 60 people who remain under the rubble are now dead,” Serhiy Haidai, governor of Luhansk province, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Russian shelling also killed two boys, ages 11 and 14, in the nearby town of Pryvillia, he said. Luhansk is part of the Donbas, the industrial heartland in the east that Russia's forces are working to capture.
(AP)