As Moscow prepared for its Victory Day holiday, authorities reported early Monday that Russia unleashed large-scale attacks on Kyiv and across Ukraine, causing devastation and casualties.
Russian missiles burned a food warehouse in Odesa, and Ukrainian officials reported blasts in numerous districts. At least five people were hurt in Kyiv.
The attacks come as Moscow prepares for its Victory Day parade on Tuesday, a key anniversary for President Vladimir Putin, who has invoked the spirit of the Soviet army that defeated Nazi German forces to declare that Russia would defeat Ukraine, supposedly under a new Nazi regime.
After Russia’s Wagner mercenary squad seemed to abandon preparations to retreat from Bakhmut, Ukraine’s top commander defending the city warned Russia intensified shelling to conquer it by Tuesday.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on his Telegram channel that three persons were hurt in blasts in Kyiv’s Solomyanskyi neighborhood and two more when drone wreckage fell in Sviatoshyn, west of the city.
The Kyiv military administration claimed drone wreckage crashed on a runway at Zhuliany airport, one of the city’s two passenger airports, sparking no fire but requiring emergency services.
In Kyiv’s downtown Shevchenkivskyi neighborhood, drone debris damaged a two-story building. Casualties were unknown.
Local officials claimed air defense systems were repelling the strikes, but Reuters witnessed many explosions in Kyiv. Kyiv’s drone count was unknown.
Serhiy Bratchuk, Odesa military administration spokesperson, tweeted photographs of a massive facility engulfed in flames on his Telegram channel, claiming a Russian strike on a food warehouse.
After air raid alarms blared for hours over two-thirds of Ukraine, media reported explosions in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-appointed local administrator in Zaporizhzhia, claimed Russian forces targeted a warehouse and Ukrainian troops in Orikhiv, a tiny city. The report was unverified by Reuters.
The Sumy military administration said on Facebook that Russian soldiers bombarded eight places in northeastern Ukraine on Sunday.
Over the past two weeks, strikes against Russian-held locations, particularly in Crimea, have increased. Ukraine claims it destroyed enemy infrastructure to prepare for its long-anticipated ground invasion.
Putin invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, calling it a “special military operation” to defend Russia from neo-Nazis, but Kyiv and its allies argue it was an aggressive territorial grab.
The invasion started Europe’s greatest war since World War Two, killing thousands and forcing millions to flee.
