A day before celebrations marking the end of World War II in Russia, the Russian military launched a full-scale attack on Ukraine. According to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Army, civilians were again killed.
In the night to today alone, 16 rocket attacks were counted, primarily on the cities of Kharkiv, Cherson, Mykolaiv and the Odessa region. Kyiv was also attacked again.
“Unfortunately, there are dead and wounded civilians,” the Ukrainian general staff said in its daily situation report. Residential buildings and civilian infrastructure were damaged in the latest wave of attacks. 61 airstrikes and 52 missile attacks on positions of the Ukrainian army and inhabited areas were counted yesterday.
All 35 drone attacks on targets in different parts of Ukraine were repelled, the military said.
Hours of air alert in large parts of the country
During the latest wave of attacks, air alerts sounded for hours in about two-thirds of the country. At least five people were injured in airstrikes on Kiev, according to the capital’s mayor, Vitaly Klitschko. According to Ukrainian sources, a food warehouse in the Black Sea port city of Odessa caught fire after Russian shelling.
According to the military, eight places in the Sumy region in the north-east were under increased Russian fire. According to media reports, explosions were heard in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson and in the Zaporizhia region in the south-east of the country.
A representative installed by Russia in the Zaporizhia region said Russian forces hit a supply depot and Ukrainian positions in the small town of Orikhiv.
Intensified attacks in Bakhmut
In the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, Russia intensified the heavy weapon fire. “Russians still hope to capture the city by May 9,” General Olexandr Syrskyj said. The representations of the battle can not be checked independently.
Symbolic military parade
Preparations are underway in Moscow for tomorrow’s military parade to celebrate the Red Army’s victory over Nazi Germany in 1945. The event is particularly symbolic this year because President Vladimir Putin originally defended the invasion of Ukraine, claiming he was fighting a kind of new fascism there.
