Russia ‘is not seeking to end war by May 9 Victory Day’
Moscow’s foreign minister says 1945 anniversary will not influence its plans for the deadly conflict
Russia is not looking to end its war in Ukraine by Victory Day on May 9, its foreign minister has said, as the country looks set to mark the key anniversary under the cloud of a deadly conflict.
Speaking with Italian outlet Mediaset, Sergey Lavrov insisted Moscow would not rush to wrap up its so-called “special military operation” in time for the anniversary, which celebrates Nazi Germany’s surrender to allied forces – including the then Soviet Union – in 1945.
“Our military will not artificially adjust their actions to any date, including Victory Day,” he said. “The pace of the operation in Ukraine depends, first of all, on the need to minimise any risks for the civilian population and Russian military personnel.”
Russia typically marks Victory Day in grand style, with a large military parade in central Moscow and a speech by President Vladimir Putin hailing the country’s leading role in the defeat of fascism in Europe.
But this year’s celebrations will come against the backdrop of Moscow’s bloody military campaign in Ukraine, which Putin has justified with claims that Russia requires “denazification”, and other allusions to World War II.
“We will solemnly celebrate May 9, as we always do. Remember those who fell for the liberation of Russia and other republics of the former USSR, for the liberation of Europe from the Nazi plague,” Lavrov said.
Russia’s military has turned its focus to Ukraine’s south and east after failing to capture Kyiv in the early weeks of a war that has flattened cities, killed thousands of civilians and forced more than 5 million to flee the country.
Moscow has said that over a thousand of its soldiers have been killed in the operation. Ukraine, however, claims that Russia’s losses are much higher.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said 23,000 Russian soldiers had died since the conflict began. In a Saturday night video address, he said that more than a thousand Russian tanks and almost 2,500 other military vehicles were also destroyed.
On Sunday, US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi urged Ukraine not to back down in the face of “bullies” like Russia, following a surprise weekend visit to Kyiv. “Do not be bullied by bullies. If they are making threats, you cannot back down. That’s my view of it,” she told a news conference in the Polish city of Rzeszow, a day after talks in the Ukrainian capital with Zelensky.
“We are here for the fight and you cannot fold to a bully.”
Her unannounced trip to Kyiv made her the most senior US official to visit the Ukrainian capital to date, following visits by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin last month.
“We are visiting you to say thank you for your fight for freedom … Our commitment is to be there for you until the fight is done,” Pelosi told Zelensky.
Last week, Biden proposed a US$33 billion package for arming and supporting Ukraine, and Pelosi said Washington was “already passing into legislation the initiatives” he had raised.
In his interview, Lavrov said Nato and the EU had accepted Washington’s dominance. “Both Nato and the European Union have resigned themselves to the fact that their ‘master of the house’ is in Washington,” he said.
“And in Washington they have decided that the world must now be monopolar, they talk about that all the time.”
Lavrov also accused the US and Canada of training “neo-Nazi subdivisions” that have found their way into the ranks of the Ukrainian army, in comments referring primarily to the Azov regiment, members of which are still holding out in the Azovstal plant in Mariupol.
There are publications “confirming that Americans and especially Canadians played a leading role in preparing ultraradical, openly neo-Nazi subdivisions for Ukraine”, Lavrov said, without stating which publications he was referring to.
Do not be bullied by bullies. If they are making threats, you cannot back down. That’s my view of it SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE NANCY PELOSI