Putin claims the West was ‘preparing for the invasion of our land’
Russian honor guards march on Red Square during the Victory Day military parade in central Moscow on May 9, 2022.
Kirill Kudryavtsev | Afp | fake images
Russian President Vladimir Putin has attempted to justify his unprecedented invasion of Ukraine on “Victory Day,” one of the most important events on the country’s national calendar.
The West was “preparing for the invasion of our land, including Crimea,” Putin said without providing evidence, according to a Reuters translation. He added that NATO was creating threats on Russia’s borders.
Speaking before a massive parade of troops, tanks and military equipment in Moscow, Putin also doubled down on Russia’s strategy of focusing on the eastern Donbass region.
“You are fighting for your homeland, your future,” he told the pro-Russian separatist fighters, based in the Donetsk and Luhansk areas of the region.
After initially targeting the north, east and south of Ukraine in its invasion, Russia changed its strategy and objectives in late March after making few territorial gains.
He announced that he would withdraw from the areas around Kyiv and the north and instead focus on the “liberation” of the Donetsk and Luhansk areas.
Russia launched an unprecedented invasion of neighboring Ukraine on February 24, after amassing some 190,000 troops on the borders in the preceding weeks. There was little evidence of Ukrainian military aggression towards Russia, and many saw Moscow’s claims to the contrary as a pretext to justify the invasion.
—Katrina Bishop
Russia prepares for ‘Victory Day’ parades across the country
Topol-M mobile intercontinental ballistic missile launchers on the streets of Moscow during a Victory Day parade rehearsal. The last rehearsal of the night is one of the main races before the actual event scheduled for May 9.
Soup Images | Light Rocket | fake images
Russia is set to hold its massive “Victory Day” military parades on Monday, with 28 Russian cities set to hold military marches to mark the 77th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat by the Soviet Union in World War II. World.
More than 65,000 people will participate in them and some 2,400 units of weapons and material will be presented, according to the Russian news agency. Tass reported. The largest parade takes place in Moscow and is expected to be presided over by President Vladimir Putin.
In a recorded speech to the Group of Seven leaders on Sunday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that while May 8 (Victory in Europe Day) “was a key day to remember all the victims of the Second World War, due to the fragility of peace and the inadmissibility of any anti-humanist regime, but what today is a memory for others, for our people, is, unfortunately, just news, every day”.
He said a Russian bomb had killed 60 civilians in a town in Luhansk, and said the victims were hiding from bombing in a school that was hit by a Russian airstrike.
He said that Russia was imitating “precisely the evil that the Nazis brought to Europe.”
— Holly Ellyatt
Ukrainian Ambassador to the US: “We are preparing for everything” ahead of Russia’s “Victory Day”
Ukraine’s ambassador to the US said Sunday that the nation is making preparations before Russian Victory Day.
Russian officers march during a Victory Day parade rehearsal on May 7, 2022 in Moscow, Russia.
Tian Bin | China News Service | fake images
“We know that there are no red lines for the Moscow regime, so we are preparing for everything,” Oksana Markarova said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“We can count on Putin and imperialist Russia to do everything bad that they can possibly try to do. The question is whether we are all prepared, the civilized world, to do everything possible to defend our democracy and freedom,” he said.
Monday’s “Victory Day” is a key date for Russia. It marks the defeat of the then Soviet Union by Nazi Germany at the end of World War II in 1945.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to make a speech tomorrow, and massive military parades through central Moscow are also expected.
— Pippa Stevens, Holly Ellyatt
Jill Biden makes a surprise visit to Ukraine and meets the first lady
First Lady Jill Biden receives flowers from Olena Zelenska, wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, outside School 6, a public school that has taken in displaced students, in Uzhhorod, Ukraine, Sunday, May 8, 2022.
Susan Walsh | access point
US First Lady Jill Biden paid an unannounced visit to western Ukraine and held a surprise meeting on Mother’s Day with the nation’s First Lady Olena Zelenskyy as Russia presses its retribution war in the eastern regions.
Biden traveled under the cloak of secrecy, becoming the latest high-profile American to enter Ukraine during its 10-week conflict with Russia.
US First Lady Jill Biden meets with Olena Zelenska, wife of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at School 6, a public school that has received displaced students, in Uzhhorod, Slovakia, on May 8, 2022. .
Susan Walsh | Reuters
His visit follows recent stops in the war-torn country by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress, as well as a joint trip by the US Secretary of State ., Antony Blinken, and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in kyiv. .
The first lady traveled by car to the town of Uzhhorod from a Slovakian town bordering Ukraine.
– The Associated Press
Dozens of people are feared dead after a bomb hit a school in the Luhansk region
Ukrainian soldiers carry the coffins of Yuri Samofalov, Yuriy Varyanytsya and Alexander Malevsky, 3 Ukrainian soldiers who fell during the fighting against Russia as they arrive at the Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Lviv, Ukraine, on May 6, 2022.
Omar Marques | Anadolu Agency | fake images
Serhiy Haidai, governor of the Luhansk region, said on Sunday that at least two people had been killed after the bombing of a school.
Haidai said, according to a Reuters translation, that the shelling occurred on Saturday afternoon where 90 people had taken shelter. He said 30 had been rescued and around 60 were likely still under the rubble and feared dead.
Luhansk is one of two regions that make up Donbas, in eastern Ukraine, where Russian troops are now concentrating their efforts.
The Associated Press added that the school was located in the town of Bilogorivka. Rescue work is ongoing.
NBC News was unable to independently verify the reports.
“The fire was extinguished after almost four hours, then the rubble was removed and unfortunately the bodies of two people were found,” Haidai wrote on the Telegram messaging app, according to Sky News.
“Thirty people were evacuated from the rubble, seven of whom were injured. Sixty people are likely to have died under the rubble of the buildings.”
—Matt Clinch