Five Injured After Russia Launches Wave of Strikes on Ukraine Ahead of Victory Day Parade

Five people were injured after Russia launched a wave of strikes on Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine as the Kremlin ramped up attacks ahead of its special Victory Day parade that marks the anniversary of its defeat of Nazi Germany. Ukrainian officials said a foodstuff warehouse was set ablaze in the Black Sea city of Odesa during the attack early on Monday.

Air raid sirens sounded for hours across much of the country as Ukraine’s military administration reported that all 35 Russian-made Shahid drones and missiles directed at Kyiv were destroyed by Ukrainian air defense. A spokesman for the capital’s mayor, Vasyl Prokopchuk, told Reuters that a fuel depot was hit and high-rise buildings, cars, and other infrastructure were damaged.

In a sign of Moscow’s escalating war against Ukraine, Putin announced partial troop mobilization, arguing that Russia had been attacked by a hostile West that wanted to “destroy the nation.” He said the move was not a full-scale mobilization but a way of ensuring the country’s defenses were fully operational. But the move comes as the Kremlin’s battlefield gains in Ukraine are fading, and the economic impact of a broader confrontation with the West is starting to ripple through global markets.

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Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed that Russia would be defeated like in World War II, as he marked Victory in Europe Day. “Liberty, democracy, human dignity — they are stronger than fear and oppression,” he said. “In the contest between freedom and autocracy, sovereignty and subjugation, make no mistake: Freedom will prevail.”

Earlier in the day, Ukraine’s General Staff said that as of dawn, Russian troops had carried out 16 missile strikes and 61 airstrikes on positions and populated areas of Ukraine. It added that several Russian military vehicles were destroyed during the operation. In addition, it said Ukrainian forces had destroyed all three pro-Russian militants’ tanks crossing into Ukraine over the weekend.

The offensive came as Russia prepared for Tuesday’s Victory Day parade, which the Kremlin hopes will give it legitimacy to defend its annexation of Crimea and its war against Ukraine. A parade is a significant event for President Vladimir Putin, who has evoked the then-Soviet army that defeated Nazi German forces in World War II to justify his invasion of the neighboring state’s eastern territory.

But the deteriorating situation in Ukraine has put Putin under intense domestic pressure to take bolder action. He has been seeking to turn the conflict into a war against the West. His repeated evocation of a new kind of fascism in Ukraine has fuelled fears of a broader conflict. He has also sought to shift the focus of a war that has already killed tens of thousands into a struggle against terrorism and a threat to the Russian homeland. But his rebranding of the Ukraine war could lead to even more draconian steps.