Ukraine updates: Russia launches new wave of air strikes

Russia launched a large-scale wave of strikes on Kyiv and across Ukraine sowing destruction and injuries, officials said early on Monday, as Moscow prepares for its Victory Day holiday.

Victory Day in Russia is May 9, one of the country's most commemorated public holidays marking the anniversary of Nazi Germany's capitulation in 1945.

Air raid sirens sounded across Ukraine on Monday. 

Ukraine's military command claimed that its forces destroyed 35 Iranian-made Shahed drones that Russia had launched overnight at different targets around the country.

"The Russian Federation [also] launched 16 missile strikes last night, in particular on the cities of Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odesa regions," the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said in its daily update.

At least five people were injured in Russian strikes on Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said, while Russian missiles set ablaze a foodstuff warehouse in the Black Sea city of Odesa and blasts were reported in several other Ukrainian regions.

Three people were injured in blasts in Kyiv's Solomyanskyi district and two others were injured when drone wreckage fell onto the Sviatoshyn district, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on his Telegram messaging channel. 

Kyiv's military administration said that drone wreckage fell on a runway of the Zhuliany airport, one of the two passenger airports of the Ukrainian capital, causing no fire, but emergency services were working on the site.

It also said that in Kyiv's central Shevchenkivskyi district, drone debris seemed to have hit a two-story building, causing damage. There was no immediate information about potential casualties.

Meanwhile, Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesperson for the Odesa military administration, posted photos of a large structure fully engulfed in flames on his Telegram channel, in what he said was a Russian attack on a foodstuff warehouse, among others.

After air raid alerts blared for hours over roughly two-thirds of Ukraine, there were also media reports of sounds of explosions in the southern region of Kherson and in the Zaporizhzhia region in southeast.

Here are some of the other notable developments concerning the war in Ukraine on Monday, May 8:

Dutch PM plans to discuss Ukraine in Brazil

Mark Rutte, the prime minister of the Netherlands, said on Monday after arriving in Brazil that he would bring up the need to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression when he meets with his Brazilian counterpart Luis Inacio Lula da Silva on Tuesday.

President Lula has been critical of sending weapons to Ukraine, for which he has drawn his own criticism.

"We need to help Ukraine fight this fight," Rutte told reporters in Brazil.

"If Putin would be successful in Ukraine, and I don't think he will be, it won't end there. People are worried for their own safety, in Amsterdam, in Berlin, in Paris and Europe," he said of his plan to convince Lula of his country's "existential" support for Ukraine.

Heavy fighting in Bakhmut, says Wagner boss

The head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said they were beginning to receive ammunition and heavy fighting was underway in Bakhmut.

"According to preliminary data, we are beginning to receive ammunition," Prigozhin said in an audio message released by his spokesman.

Prigozhin last week theatened to pull his fighters out of the ruined eastern Ukrainian city, claiming there was a lack of ammunition. The Wagner chief has since backtracked from the threat.

Prigozhin added that "fierce" battles were underway as Ukrainian troops still controlled some parts of the territory.

Russian and Ukrainian forces have fought over Bakhmut for months, making it the longest and bloodiest battle of the war.

Wolrd Athletics offers funding for Ukrainian athletes

Dozens of Ukrainian track and field athletes and officials preparing for their world championships can get funding for training camps, World Athletics said.

The international governing body for track and field will invest $190,000 (€172,000) and prioritize replacing equipment for pole vaulters — the event of Ukrainian sporting great Sergey Bubka — which has been destroyed in Russian missile attacks.

A stadium that was named after Bubka in Bakhmut had been destroyed during fighting there in recent months, the national track federation said.

"It was the only center where athletes could conduct training camps at any time of the year. Now there is nothing left in Bakhmut," Ukrainian officials wrote in a letter, World Athletics said.

World Athletics has excluded athletes and officials from Russia and its military ally Belarus during the war. Both countries are expected to miss the upcoming championships between 19-27 August in Hungary. 

Putin to attend Victory Day military parade, Kremlin says

Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend the annual military parade in Moscow's Red Square as planned, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. 

"Tomorrow the president will really make an appearance at the parade," Peksov said, as reported by Russia's Interfax news agency.

Peskov said it remained to be decided whether festivities this year would include an air show. The air display was canceled last year because of bad weather, the Kremlin had said.

Authorities said last week they had tightened security as Moscow gears up to celebrate the triumph of the Soviet Union over Nazi Germany in 1945. 

Russia last week claimed that Ukraine tried to assassinate Putin with a drone strike, an allegation that Kyiv has strongly denied.

Celebrations across Russian cities have been scaled back in light of the war in Ukraine and concerns over Ukrainian attacks targeting them.  

Hundreds evacuated from occupied towns in Zaporizhzhia province

Some 1,679 people, including 660 children, have been evacuated from occupied Russian towns in the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia, a Russian-appointed official in the region said.

Authorities in occupied towns in the province ordered evacuations last week amid rumors of an Ukrainian counteroffensive.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. Moscow's troops seized the plant soon after invading Ukraine, but Ukrainian employees have continued to run it during the occupation.

Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has spent months trying to persuade Russia and Ukrainian officials to establish a security zone around the plant to prevent the war from causing a radiation leak.

Chinese Foreign Minister on Europe tour this week

China's Foreign Minister Qin Gang is kicking off a Europe tour this week, with scheduled stops in Germany, France and Norway.

The Chinese top diplomat is due to hold talks with his German, French and Norwegian counterparts during the trip, which starts on Monday and continues until Friday.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesman said the visit was at the invitation of Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna and Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt. 

He did not give details about the agenda of the visit, but peace in Ukraine is expected to be high up.

The visit comes some two weeks after controversial Chinese comments regarding the sovereignty of former Soviet countries. 

The Chinese ambassador to France drew European anger when he said that such countries, which would include Ukraine, "don't have effective status under international law because there is not an international agreement confirming their status as sovereign nations".

European Commission chief to visit Kyiv

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will visit Kyiv on Tuesday, for talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy among others. 

An EU spokesman announced the visit on Monday.

"The visit will focus on all the dimensions of our relations with Ukraine," spokesman Eric Mamer said.

Von der Leyen has visited the Ukrainian capital several times since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Zelenskyy expects Russia, like Nazi Germany, to face defeat

As Europe marks the 78th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he expected Moscow's forces to be vanquished in a similar manner.

"We fought then and we fight now so that no one ever again enslaves other nations and destroys other countries. And all those old evils that modern Russia now is bringing back will be defeated, just as Nazism was defeated," he said in a video statement standing in front of a war memorial on a hill above Kyiv.

Cementing Ukraine's break with that past, Zelenskyy also said the country would now mark the end of the war on May 8 with legislation for the change about to be forwarded to Ukraine's parliament. 

Russia celebrates the defeat of the Nazis on May 9 because the German surrender was signed late in the evening in Berlin, past midnight in Moscow time, and — until now — former Soviet state Ukraine had also followed this practice.

Russia hopes to capture Bakhmut by Tuesday — Ukrainian general

Russia has intensified the shelling of Bakhmut, hoping to take it by Tuesday, Ukraine's top general in charge of the defense of the besieged city said, vowing to do everything to prevent it.

Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, the Ukrainian commander of ground forces, said that Russian forces increased the intensity of shelling with heavy weapons of the city, began to use more advanced equipment and were regrouping troops.

"Today, it is important to make decisions as quickly as possible and predict the actions of the enemy," Syrskyi said on his Telegram channel after what he said was a visit to the troops along the Bakhmut frontline.

"The Russians still hope to capture the city by May 9. Our task is to prevent this," he said.

The battle for the city, once home to 70,000 people, has symbolic importance for both sides, with Ukraine still holding on to some parts of it after more than 10 months of fierce fighting against regular Russian troops and the Wagner mercenary force.

Moscow sees Bakhmut as a stepping stone to attacking other Ukrainian cities. Kyiv has said before that maintaining the defense of Bakhmut,  occupying important Russian offensive forces, enables the military to prepare its expected counteroffensive.

rm, dh/msh (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)