Taking cover for Victory Day
Leaders from across Ukraine are urging caution ahead of Russia’s Victory Day tomorrow, warning the country of potential increased missile strikes.
Cities are increasing patrols, instituting curfews, and reminding citizens not to gather in large groups.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that while there would not be a curfew in the region, there would be increased patrols around the capital.
‘‘Today is not the time for mass festivities or outdoor recreation with large companies,’’ Klitschko said. ‘‘Be careful and follow the rules of security in wartime.’’
In Zaporizhzhia, acting mayor Anatolii Kurtev announced a curfew from 7pm Sunday to 5am Tuesday local time. Kurtev pleaded with residents to ‘‘stay at home during this period’’, saying those who needed to walk their dogs should do so quickly and carry their personal documents.
Vadym Denysenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior ministry, referenced an air strike in Kramatorsk last month that killed dozens of people on railway station platforms as they tried to flee the region. ‘‘It is important that there are no mass events,’’ he said.
Victory Day is celebrated by Russians in remembrance of their country’s role in defeating Nazi Germany in World War II. This year, however, there are fears that Russian President Vladimir Putin will use the occasion to signal the end of the ‘‘special military operation’’ invasion and declare a formal
war with Ukraine. The Kremlin has denied that it will do so.
Meanwhile, heavy fighting continued at the besieged Azovstal Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol, where Russian forces are intensifying their attack.
Dozens of people were evacuated yesterday from the plant and handed over to representatives of the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, Russian and Ukrainian officials said. The Russian military said the group of 50 included 11 children.
Russian officials and Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said the evacuation efforts would continue into the weekend. The latest evacuees followed roughly 500 other civilians who got out of the plant and city in recent days.
Kateryna Prokopenko, whose husband, Denys Prokopenko, commands the Azov Regiment troops inside the plant, issued a desperate plea to also spare the fighters. She said they would be willing to go to a third country to wait out the war but would never surrender to Russia, because
that would mean ‘‘filtration camps, prison, torture and death’’.
On the battlefield, the governor of the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine described the situation there as ‘‘continuous horror’’. Ukrainian forces had shifted to counterattacks in the cities of Kharkiv and Izyum, with ongoing heavy clashes in the east, according to General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s top military officer.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy yesterday outlined his conditions for entering peace talks with Russia, demanding a restoration of preinvasion borders, the return of more than 5 million refugees, membership in the European Union, and accountability from Russian military leaders before Kyiv would consider laying down its arms.
Zelenskyy’s requirements, which he listed during an online forum organised by British policy institute Chatham House, are in direct conflict with the military objectives Russian leaders have articulated as they bear down on the Donbas region and southern Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Foreign Ministry dismissed speculation that it might try to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine, saying that its doctrine on that point was ‘‘not applicable to implementing the tasks set during the special military operation’’.
United States President Joe Biden yesterday authorised the shipment of another US$150 million (NZ$234m) in military assistance for Ukraine, for artillery rounds and radar systems in its fight against Russia’s invading forces.
Biden said the latest spending meant his Administration had ‘‘nearly exhausted’’ what Congress authorised for Ukraine in March. He called on lawmakers to swiftly approve a more than US$33 billion (NZ$51.5b) spending package that will last through the end of September.
A US official said the latest tranche of assistance included 25,000 155mm artillery rounds, counter-artillery radars, jamming equipment, field equipment and spare parts.