Russia increases drone strikes in Ukraine ahead of May 9 Victory Day holiday
Global News
Separately, Russian forces shelled eight spots in Sumy in northeastern Ukraine on Sunday, the regional military administration said in a Facebook post.
Russia launched its biggest wave of drone strikes on Ukraine for months on Monday, escalating attacks in the run-up to its May 9 Victory Day holiday celebrating the defeat of Nazi Germany, which Kyiv marked a day earlier in a new break with Moscow.
Kyiv’s mayor said Russia had fired 60 Iranian-made kamikaze drones at Ukrainian targets, including 36 at the capital, all of which had been shot down, although debris hit apartments and other buildings, injuring at least five people on the ground.
A food warehouse was set ablaze by a missile in the Black Sea city of Odesa, where officials reported three people were injured.
It was the biggest drone swarm yet in a renewed Russian air campaign unleashed 10 days ago after a lull since early March.
Kyiv said Moscow was also making a final push to try to capture the ruined eastern city of Bakhmut, to deliver President Vladimir Putin what would be his only prize for a costly Russian winter offensive, in time for Victory Day.
Moscow is preparing for Tuesday’s Victory Day parade, the most important day in the calendar for Russia under Putin, who uses the 1945 Soviet triumph over Nazi Germany to justify his invasion of Ukraine.
In a new break with Moscow, Ukraine marked Victory Day on Monday, rather than Tuesday, in line with the practice of its Western allies. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had signed a decree to officially change the date in future.
The German army’s 1945 surrender took effect late at night on May 8 in Berlin, when it was already May 9 in Moscow, the date that became the Soviet holiday.