KYIV(Reuters) – Russia shot down the largest swarm of drones in months against Ukraine on Monday on the eve of Russia’s May 9 holiday celebrating the defeat of Nazi Germany.
The mayor of Kyiv said Russia had launched 60 Iranian-made kamikaze drones against targets in Ukraine, 36 of which were shot down in the capital Kiev. At least five of his people were injured in the capital as debris crashed into homes and other buildings.
In the Black Sea city of Odessa, a food warehouse was set on fire by a missile, officials said, injuring three people.
It was the largest swarm of drones yet in a new Russian airstrike that was unleashed 10 days ago after a lull since early March. Kiev is also making a last-ditch push to seize the devastated eastern city of Bakhmut in order to deliver President Vladimir Putin’s only prize in a costly Russian winter offensive in time for Moscow’s Victory Day.
Moscow is gearing up for Tuesday’s Victory Day parade. It is the most important day on the Russian calendar under Putin.President Putin uses the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in 1945 to justify his invasion of Ukraine.
In a renewed break with Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that he had signed a decree to mark Victory Day on Monday instead of Tuesday, and to change the date of the holiday in line with the practice of the Western Allies.
“Remembering the heroism of millions of Ukrainians in this fight against Nazism, we see the same heroism in the actions of our soldiers today,” Zelensky addressed the nation from a hilltop overlooking KYIV.
“Unfortunately, evil has returned. Just as evil invaded our towns and villages then, so it does now. Just as it killed our people then, so it is now,” he said. “And all the old evils that modern Russia seeks to revive will be defeated in the same way that Nazism was defeated.”
The surrender of the Wehrmacht in 1945 came into force late in the evening of May 8 in Berlin, but in Moscow it was already May 9 and this day became a Soviet holiday.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova postponed the date Zelensky betrayed the memory of Ukrainians who fought the Nazis.
“What is worse than an enemy? traitor. This is Zelensky, the 21st century incarnation of Judas,” she said.
Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union, had more casualties per capita than Russia in World War II, and was one of the Jewish core countries of Europe wiped out by the Holocaust.
Explosions were heard in Kyiv all night. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said three people were injured in an explosion in the Solomyansky district and two were destroyed by a drone that fell in the Sviatocin district, west of the center of the capital.
Kyiv’s military junta said a wrecked drone hit the runway at Zhuryany Airport, one of the capital’s two passenger airports, and attracted emergency services, but said there was no fire. Drone wreckage also damaged his two-story building in the heart of the Shevchenkivsky district.
In Odessa, a large building identified as a food storage facility was completely engulfed in flames, according to an image posted on his Telegram by a spokesman for the Odessa military government, Serhiy Brachuk. After hours of airstrike sirens sounding over about two-thirds of Ukraine, local media said explosions could be heard south of Kherson and southeast of Zaporizhia.
Vladimir Rogov, a Russian stationed in Zaporizhia, said Russian troops attacked a warehouse and Ukrainian military positions in the small town of Orihiv. Reuters was unable to independently verify the report.
Attacks against Russian targets, especially in Crimea, have also intensified in the past two weeks. Ukraine has confirmed that it was not involved in such attacks.
