Air raid alerts in Ukraine ahead of Russian Victory Day celebrations

Air raid alert is issued for the whole of Ukraine following overnight strikes – as Zelensky vows Putin will be defeated ‘as Nazism was’ on eve of Russia’s Victory Day celebrations

• Ukraine issued a nationwide air raid alert following drone and missile strikes 
• Strikes mount as Russia prepares for Victory Day celebrations tomorrow 

Ukraine today issued a nationwide air raid alert following the biggest wave of drone and missile strikes across the country in months.

Officials say attacks have hit cities including Kharkiv, Kherson, Kyiv, Mykolaid and Odesa in the run up to Russia’s commemoration of Victory Day tomorrow, a symbolically important holiday to commemorate the Soviet triumph over the Nazis.

Putin has relied on Soviet-era rhetoric to justify the invasion of Ukraine as the ‘denazification’ of a belligerent imperial power from the west, with Ukrainian officials warning he now plans to capture frontline cities by 9 May.

In a statement today, Ukrainian President Zelensky still urged that Putin would be defeated ‘as Nazism was’, drawing comparisons between the Ukrainian defenders today and those who fought against the Nazis in World War II. 

An explosion is seen during a Russian drone strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, overnight on 8 May

Another image shows smoke billowing during a drone strike on the Ukrainian capital, 8 May

Zelensky speaks at a press conference during his visit to the Netherlands on 4 May 2023

Kyiv’s mayor said Russia had fired 60 Iranian-made kamikaze drones at Ukrainian targets overnight, including 36 at the capital, all of which had been shot down.

Debris was reported to have hit apartments and other buildings, injuring at least five people on the ground.

READ MORE: Ukraine fears its long-awaited counter-offensive will NOT live up to the hype and will put pressure on them to negotiate with Putin

A food warehouse was set ablaze by a missile in the Black Sea city of Odesa, where officials reported three people were injured.

Military bloggers said the air alerts could have been triggered by a Russian warplane armed with advanced Kinzhal hypersonic weapons, which MailOnline has been unable to verify.

Ukraine’s air force claimed on Saturday to have downed its first Kinzhal missile over Kyiv using a newly acquired American Patriot defence system as strikes started to intensify.

Russia has ramped up air attacks on Ukraine in the lead-up to Victory Day as experts anticipate the start of a long-awaited Ukrainian counter-offensive.

On the frontline, ground forces commander Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi warned that Putin ‘still hope[s] to capture [Bakhmut] by May 9.’

‘Our task is to prevent this,’ he said during a visit to the frontline city in eastern 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 Zelenskiy said he had signed a decree to officially change the date in future.

He added: ‘Recalling the heroism of millions of Ukrainians in that war against Nazism, we see the same heroism in the actions of our soldiers today.’

‘Unfortunately, evil has returned. Just as evil rushed into our towns and villages then, so it does not. As it killed out people then, so it does now.’

‘And all the old evil that modern Russia is bringing back will be defeated, just as Nazism was defeated.’ 

Image shows people sheltering in a subway station during an air raid alert in Kyiv on 4 May

A child shelters in a subway station in Kyiv amid increased Russian air strikes on 4 May 2023

Russia celebrates on 9 May while most other European countries mark the date on 8 May, usually due to time differences when Nazi Germany signed to surrender in 1945.

READ MORE: UN warns of threat of ‘severe nuclear accident’ after Putin orders evacuation of town near nuclear power plant captured by Russia in early days of Ukraine invasion

 

Despite the importance of the holiday in Russia, many parades have been cancelled or limited due in part to security concerns.

Russia has also lost much of the military hardware in its failed winter offensive it could have used to put on a show.

At least six regions in Russia had scrapped celebrations before a drone strike on the Kremlin heightened fears last week.

A Moscow official, speaking on conditions of anonymity, told The Guardian that ‘there is a nervousness that I have never seen before’ ahead of the holiday.

Events could be important for Russia in keeping up morale and support for the war.

At home, support seems mixed at best. While there are issues in gathering reliable data, recent polling suggests around 43% are in favour of continuing the fight.

Only 30% in February 2023 believed the narrative that the invasion of Ukraine was an pre-emptive attack needed to prevent a NATO invasion.

Polling is made difficult by strict war censorship laws. In 2022, more than 20,000 people were detained for ‘demonstrating anti-war sentiment in public’ – and some sent to prison for dissent.

Last month, a Russian pensioner was fined 40,000 rubles by a Russian court just for calling Zelensky a ‘handsome young man’. 

Wilson Centre research notes loyalists are more likely to agree to be surveyed that regime opponents. 

A cossack walks past decorations for the upcoming celebrations marking the 78th anniversary of the 1945 victory over Nazi Germany, set up just off the Kremlin in central Moscow on 3 May

Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting on the development of unmanned aircraft, at the Rudnyovo industrial park in Moscow, on 27 April 2023

Meanwhile, as Ukraine plans for its own counter-offensive, Ukraine’s Defence Minister has warned that raising expectations could lead to ’emotional disappointment’.

Oleksii Reznikov said in an interview last week: ‘The expectation from our counteroffensive campaign is overestimated in the world. Most people are waiting for something huge.’

Many of the details of Ukraine’s planned counteroffensive remain secret but Ukraine will seek to push through the contested regions in the east and south that have been pinned under artillery fire for months.

Cities like Bakhmut in the Donetsk Oblast of eastern Ukraine have seen months of intense fighting between opposing factions, with civilian areas in-between razed during the clashes.

However, American planners have raised concerns that Ukraine will have only modest success in achieving its aims, to break Russia’s land connection to the Crimean peninsula while exploiting weaknesses to reclaim contested territories in the east.

Despite efforts to supply weapons and training to Ukraine, leaked documents from April warn that ‘enduring Ukrainian deficiencies in training and munitions supplies probably will strain progress and exacerbate casualties during the offensive.’ 

US Joint Chief of Staff Mark Milley has said since that Ukraine does have the leadership and morale needed to beat Russia.

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