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Kremlin claims to want 72-hour truce to mark occasion despite launching more fatal overnight drone strikes on Ukraine
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US veterans of the Second World War and nearly 30 foreign leaders will attend commemorations in Moscow this week to mark the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany, the Kremlin has claimed.
Kyiv has warned that attendance would undermine countries’ claims to neutrality over Russia’s war in Ukraine, and launched a second consecutive night of drone strikes on Moscow, which forced the Russian capital’s four airports to close on Tuesday.
But the Kremlin announced hours later that 29 foreign leaders – including China’s Xi Jinping and Slovakia’s Robert Fico – were expected to attend, while military units from 13 countries will take part in Friday’s annual Victory Day parade.
Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov claimed several US veterans of the Second World War are expected to attend the events – which will mark the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory – but it is unclear whether any US officials intend to. Moscow has sent an invitation to the US ambassador.
Despite Vladimir Putin claiming to want a 72-hour truce this week to mark the occasion, Russia also launched a wave of drone strikes which killed two people in Donetsk and Odesa, and injured several others in Kharkiv, where the city’s largest market was engulfed in flames.
Vladimir Putin has called for a 72-hour ceasefire from Thursday, as he prepares to welcome a number of foreign leaders for Russia’s annual Victory Day parade.
Ukraine – which has long demanded a full ceasefire – has dismissed the brief truce as unserious, with Russia having in effect rejected a US proposal for a 30-day truce, accepted by Ukraine.
Despite this, Mr Trump hailed the Russian president’s call for a three-day halt in hostilities, which Mr Putin claimed was “on humanitarian grounds” but is timed to coincide with the parade he hopes will serve to showcase international support for Russia despite its war in Ukraine.
Speaking on Monday, Mr Trump said that the brief truce “doesn’t sound like much, but it’s — a lot if you knew where we started from”.
Moscow’s four airports were forced to close temporarily as Ukraine launched a second night of drone attacks on the Russian capital just days ahead of a major military parade marking the end of the Second World War.
Flights were halted for several hours overnight at all four airports serving Moscow to ensure air safety, Russia’s aviation watchdog said, while airports in a number of regional cities were also closed. No major destruction or injuries were reported, Moscow’s mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.
China’s president Xi Jinping is among those expected to travel to Moscow for the parade on 9 May. Kyiv has urged against such a move – warning that any such participation would go against countries’ declared neutrality in the war.
Read more details in this report:
Ukraine’s parliamentary foreign policy committee has backed ratifying the minerals deal agreed with Donald Trump, MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak has said.
Ukraine’s parliament is set to vote on Thursday on whether to ratify the agreement, which hands the US a vast stake in Ukraine’s mineral wealth.
Ahead of the vote in parliament, 11 members of the committee backed the deal, while one abstained and two did not take part, Mr Zhelezniak was quoted by the Kyiv Independent as saying.
The Russian government plans to tap its fiscal reserves for 447 billion roubles (£4.1bn) – or 14 per cent of their remaining liquid assets – to balance the budget in 2025 after a threefold increase in the deficit, Vladimir Putin’s finance minister has said.
“Overall for the year based on forecast data from the Ministry of Economy, which we used as a basis for the federal budget adjustment, we expect to use 447 billion roubles from the National Wealth Fund,” Anton Siluanov told a news conference.
Mr Siluanov said the government was not planning to increase its borrowing plans for this year.
The government would not be able to boost reserves in the next three-year budget cycle through a widely expected lowering of the so-called “cut-off” in the oil price, above which windfall oil revenues flow into reserves, he added.
“In the projections for the next three-year budget, a change in the cut-off price will not be provided for,” he said.
Russia’s oil price in roubles has fallen to a two-year low below the 4,000 rouble per barrel mark – and some 40 per cent lower than planned in the federal budget, data showed, piling pressure on the Kremlin.
Donald Trump suggested this week that Vladimir Putin would be more inclined towards peace in Ukraine after the recent fall in the price of oil.
“I think Russia with the price of oil right now, oil has gone down, we are in a good position to settle, they want to settle. Ukraine wants to settle,” Mr Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday.
A Russian ballistic missile attack on the outskirts of the Ukrainian city of Sumy has killed one child and wounded six people, most of them children, the regional governor has said.
At least one of the children was in a severe condition, he said.
Two civilians were killed as the Ukrainian air force said Russia had fired 136 strike and decoy drones overnight, with casualties reported in Odesa, Donetsk, and Kharkiv – where the city’s largest market was set ablaze by drone fire.
More than 100 commercial units were either damaged or burned to the ground in the attack on the Barabashovo market, said Kharkiv’s mayor Oleg Synegubov, who reported that at least 11 people had been wounded in overnight attacks across the region, four of them in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
“The Russian army shelled the largest market in the city, where many people come to shop. There are no military facilities or any potential military targets nearby,” said Mr Synegubov.
With Ukraine’s military reporting that Russia fired more than 130 drones in total, including some decoys, one person in the Donetsk city of Kramatorsk was killed and two others injured in attacks on residential and industrial areas, the city’s mayor said.
Another person was killed in strikes on similar targets in Odesa, its regional governor said.
Two Moscow airports have once again been closed on Tuesday evening as the Russian capital’s mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that three drones headed towards Moscow had been shot down.
The defence ministry said two Ukrainian drones had been downed over Moscow region, seven in Kaluga and four in Tula regions.
Several Russian media outlets shared videos purportedly showing debris from one of the downed drones in the city of Noginsk, east of the Russian capital.
Russia’s aviation authority halted flights at two of Moscow’s airports, Vnukovo and Domodedovo, on Tuesday evening – with all four airports serving the capital having been forced to close hours earlier.
The drone attack comes just days before Vladimir Putin hosts several world leaders in Moscow to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany.
Poland is facing an unprecedented attempt by Russia to interfere in its presidential election, Warsaw’s digital affairs minister has warned, as the first round of voting looms next week.
“During the current presidential elections in Poland, we are facing an unprecedented attempt to interfere in the electoral process from the Russian side,” Krzysztof Gawkowski told a defence conference.
“This is being done … [by] spreading disinformation in combination with hybrid attacks on Polish critical infrastructure in order to paralyse the normal functioning of the state.”
Mr Gawkowski alleged that Polish water and sewage companies, heat and power plants and state administration bodies had all been attacked, and that Russian involvement in such attacks had more than doubled this year.
“Today in Poland, during every minute of my speech, a dozen or so incidents targeting critical infrastructure were recorded,” he said.
Russia has repeatedly denied accusations that it interferes in foreign elections. The Russian embassy in Warsaw declined to comment on the matter when approached by Reuters for comment, and recommended asking Mr Gawkowski to “provide evidence for his insinuation”.
Ukraine’s military has reported nearly 80 combat clashes along the front line so far on Tuesday, as Russian troops continue their assaults despite allegedly suffering significant losses.
The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said they had repelled two attacks in the direction of Kharkiv, with three clashes ongoing there.
The heaviest fighting continues in the direction of Pokrovsk, with 36 Russian assaults reported towards the Donetsk city, which has been at the centre of Vladimir Putin’s offensive efforts for months.
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Ukraine war live: US veterans to attend Putin’s Victory Day parade, Moscow claims – The Independent
