The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in its morning update on the war that up to 16 missile strikes targeted the cities of Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odessa, in addition to the exposure of other Ukrainian sites about 61 airstrikes and 52 missile shells.
The military said Ukrainian air defenses destroyed all 35 Russian-launched drones.
According to the mayor of Kiev, at least 5 people were injured in the Ukrainian capital, and a fuel depot, cars, buildings and infrastructure were damaged.
Preparations for Victory Day
The new attacks on Ukraine come as Moscow prepares for the ‘Victory Day’ parade tomorrow Tuesday, on an important occasion for President Vladimir Putin, who invoked the spirit of Soviet victory over Germany Nazi, accusing Ukraine of struggling with a new type of fascism.
Ukraine and its allies say the accusation is a ‘baseless pretext’ for the Russian invasion, which was launched in February 2022, sparked Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II, killed thousands of people and forced millions to flee the country.
“We must always be ready for betrayal and defense of the enemy,” Hana Malyar, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, said in a message on Telegram, according to Reuters.
Bombing of Kyiv and Odessa
Kiev’s military department said the wreckage of a drone landed on a runway at Giuliani Airport, one of the capital’s two passenger airports, prompting emergency services to be called there. low even though there was no fire.
He added that wreckage of the drone reportedly hit a two-story building in the downtown Shevchenkivsky district, causing damage.
Reuters witnesses said they heard several explosions in Kyiv, and local officials said air defense systems repelled the attacks.
Photos released by Serhiy Prachuk, a military administration spokesman in Odessa, after what he called a Russian attack showed a large building, believed to be a food warehouse, on fire.
After warnings of airstrikes sounded for hours over nearly two-thirds of Ukrainian territory, media reported that explosions had been heard in the Kherson region in the south and in Zaporizhia in the southeast.
Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-appointed official in Zaporizhia, said Russian forces shelled a warehouse and a position of Ukrainian forces in the small town of Orekhiv.
Reuters could not independently verify the report.
Tuesday.. Bakhmut check
The Ukrainian general who commands the defense of the besieged town of Bakhmut says Russia has stepped up its bombardment, hoping to seize it by tomorrow Tuesday, after Wagner’s forces apparently abandoned plans to withdraw. .
“Today it is important to make decisions as quickly as possible and to foresee the actions of the enemy,” Colonel General Oleksandr Sersky said on his Telegram channel.
The Russians still hoped to capture the city on May 9. “Our job is to prevent that,” he said.
Wagner Forces founder Yevgeny Prigozhin withdrew his threat to walk out of Bakhmut yesterday amid renewed promises of weapons by Moscow.
In an audio recording posted on his Telegram channel, Prigozhin said, “We were promised as much ammunition and weapons as needed to continue our operations. We were promised to deploy everything necessary to prevent the enemy from cutting off our supplies.
On the ground, Russian and Wagnerian forces managed to penetrate the first buildings of the Olympic School in western Bakhmut, and these forces arrived near the post office in the city.
Meanwhile, clashes continued on the outskirts of the city, but with no significant change in the positions of the forces.
Zakan Prigozhin said earlier that his forces had advanced 280 meters into the city and now controlled 53,000 square meters, indicating that whatever remained in the hands of Ukrainian forces was no more than 2.4 square kilometers.
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