Five injured in Kyiv, explosions reported in southern Ukraine amid fresh Russian strikes
Five people were injured in Kyiv as Russia launched a new wave of strikes against Ukrainian cities, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram.
Klitschko said that debris from a drone attack on a building fell onto a smaller building and a parked car, injuring people there.
“Likely as a result of debris falling on a parked car in the yard of a residential building, the car caught fire,” Kyiv’s military administration said in a Telegram post. “There is a recorded fall of debris on a residential building.”
Explosions have also been reported in the Black Sea port city of Odesa and the southeastern city of Kherson.
— Natasha Turak
Wagner Group leader reverses course on plan to leave Bakhmut
A house burns after shelling in the town of Chasiv Yar, near Bakhmut, on March 21, 2023.
Aris Messinis | Afp | Getty Images
Wagner Group leader Yevgeniy Prigozhin ditched his threat from last week to leave the war-ravaged city of Bakhmut in light of insufficient ammunition supplies.
The private military firm’s boss wrote on Telegram Sunday,: “Overnight we received a combat order, for the first time in all this time. We have been promised as much ammunition and weapons as we need to continue further operations. We have been promised that everything needed to prevent the enemy from cutting us off will be deployed on the flank.”
Prigozhin on Friday released a video in which he, surrounded by dead bodies of Wagner fighters, blasted Russian Defense Ministry chiefs for failing to supply his combatants with the ammunition they needed to fight in Bakhmut, an eastern Ukrainian city that’s been the site of the war’s longest and bloodiest battle so far.
— Natasha Turak
Russia prepares for Victory Day celebrations in Moscow despite ‘nervousness’
Russian servicewomen march on Dvortsovaya Square during the Victory Day military parade in St. Petersburg on May 9, 2022.
Olga Maltseva | AFP | Getty Images
Moscow is going ahead with Victory Day celebrations on Tuesday, which include a major military parade, to celebrate the anniversary of the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.
This year’s commemoration follows a turbulent week that saw an alleged attempted drone attack on the Kremlin, which Moscow blames on Ukraine and Washington, but that Kyiv argues was staged by Russia to escalate the war.
A Moscow city official was quoted by the Guardian as describing “a nervousness that I have never seen before” in the wake of the drone attack, but then adding that the Victory Day parade must still take place.
At least six regions in Russia have canceled their Victory Day celebrations.
The Guardian writes, “Tellingly, on Friday, Putin took the unusual step to discuss the preparations for the 9 May Victory Day parade in a meeting with his security council, composed of Russia’s top state officials and heads of defence and security agencies … Even before the drone attack on the Kremlin, there were signs of unease among the Russian leadership over the celebrations amid fears of Ukrainian strikes.”
— Natasha Turak