Ukraine-Russia war latest news: Air alert as Vladimir Putin launches suicide drones on Kyiv

Air raid sirens wailed across the whole of Ukraine on Monday just hours after Russia conducted massive overnight drone and missile strikes on the country.

Ukrainian military bloggers said the air alerts could have been triggered by a Russian warplane armed with Moscow’s Kinzhal hypersonic weapons taking off.

The claim could not be immediately verified.

Russia launched a wave of drone, missile and air strikes on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, officials said on Monday, as Moscow stepped up attacks while preparing for its cherished Victory Day holiday celebrating the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.

As many as 16 missile strikes had targeted the cities of Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odesa regions, in addition to 61 airstrikes and 52 rocket salvos on Ukrainian positions and populated areas, the General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said in its morning update on the fighting.

Ukrainian air defences destroyed all 35 Iranian-made Shahed drones Russia had launched, the military said.

Ukraine air defenses shot down 35 Iranian-made drones over Kyiv in Russia’s latest nighttime assault, as attacks across Ukraine by the Kremlin’s forces killed three civilians, officials said Monday as Moscow enforced tight security on the eve of traditional Red Square commemorations marking the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.

Five people in the capital were injured by falling drone debris, according to Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration. Air raid alarms sounded for more than three hours during the night.

Drone wreckage struck a two-story apartment building in Kyiv’s western Svyatoshynskyi district, while other debris struck a car parked nearby, setting it on fire, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a Telegram post.

• Ukraine’s top military command said its forces destroyed all 35 Iranian-made Shahed drones that Russia had launched overnight at targets around the country.
• Kyiv’s mayor said at least five people were wounded in the capital amid damage to a fuel depot, cars, buildings and infrastructure. A food warehouse was set ablaze by a missile in the Black Sea city of Odesa, where officials reported three people wounded.
• The military said 16 rockets had hit the Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odesa regions in the last 24 hours, in addition to 61 strikes and 52 rocket salvos on Ukrainian positions and populated areas.
• Russia has intensified shelling of Bakhmut hoping to take it by Tuesday – Russia’s Victory Day holiday, Ukraine’s top general in charge of the defence of the besieged city said, vowing to do everything to prevent it.
• Ukraine, which as part of the then-Soviet Union endured higher per capita casualties than Russia in battling the Nazis in World War Two, proclaimed May 8 to be Victory Day, rather than May 9 – a clear bid to separate its observance of the day from that of Russia.
• Russia’s Wagner mercenary group appeared to ditch plans to withdraw from Bakhmut, saying it had been promised more arms and suggesting it may keep up the assault on what Russia sees as a stepping stone in the Donbas region.
• Some 1,679 people, including 660 children, have been evacuated from areas near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, a Moscow-installed official in the Russia-controlled parts of the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine said.

Russia has cancelled or curtailed some of the huge military parades that normally accompany Victory Day.

Western countries say this is in part out of security concerns and in part because Moscow has lost so much military hardware in a largely failed winter offensive in Ukraine that has seen the most intense ground combat in Europe since World War Two.

“The Russians still hope to capture the city by 9 May. Our task is to prevent this,” Ukrainian ground forces commander Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi said after visiting the front line near Bakhmut, Russia’s main target.

Ukraine, which drove Russian forces back from the ramparts of the capital and recovered substantial territory last year, has kept its troops on the defensive for the past six months, but is preparing a massive counteroffensive in coming weeks.

The president of Ukraine described the new monarch and his wife, Queen Camilla, as “true friends of Ukraine” as he addressed the royal family.

“On behalf of the entire Ukrainian people, I congratulate Their Majesties, true friends of Ukraine, on this historic event that begins a new era of the British monarchy,” Mr Zelensky said.

“I wish King Charles III many years of successful reign.”

President Volodymyr Zelensky marked the anniversary of the surrender of Nazi Germany in World War Two by saying on Monday he would formalise a day of remembrance in Ukraine on May 8 when other Western countries celebrate Europe’s victory.

Speaking to the nation on a hill overlooking Kyiv, Zelensky said “the old evil” had returned, this time waged by a “modern Russia” pursuing the same goal as the Nazis of “enslavement and destruction” – but that they would not succeed.

Further cementing Ukraine’s break with its Soviet past, Zelensky said he had submitted a bill to parliament officially making May 8 a day of remembrance and victory, while May 9 – when Russia marks victory day – would become Europe Day.

“We are returning to our state an honest history without ideological influences. It is on May 8 that most nations of the world remember the greatness of the victory over the Nazis,” he said in a video posted on the president’s Telegram channel.

“Today, I signed the relevant decree, and every year from tomorrow, May 9, we will commemorate our historic unity…the unity of all Europeans who destroyed Nazism and will defeat rashism,” he said, using a word Ukrainians have coined to describe what they call Russian fascism.

“The unity that brings peace closer.”

China opposes any measures that use China-Russia relations as a pretext for the damage of trade cooperation, China’s foreign ministry said on Monday.

In response to the European Union’s proposed sanctions on Chinese companies over accusations of them aiding Russia’s war machine, ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said if these sanctions come into force, China will take firm action to safeguard its interests.

In a Stalinist skyscraper which dominates the skyline of Latvia’s capital, dozens of elderly Russians wait to take a basic Latvian language test as a proof of loyalty to a country where they have lived for decades.

Clutching red Russian passports, the participants, mostly women, read their notes for last minute revision, fearing they may be expelled from the Baltic country if they fail.

Speaking Russian instead of Latvian has not been a problem until now, but the war in Ukraine changed the picture. Last year’s election campaign was dominated by questions of national identity and security concerns.

The government now demands a language test from the 20,000 people in the country holding Russian passports, mostly elderly and female, as the loyalty of Russian citizens is a worry, said Dmitrijs Trofimovs, state secretary at the Interior Ministry.

“(If I am deported), I would have nowhere to go, I have lived here for 40 years,” said Valentina Sevastjanova, 70, a former English teacher and Riga guide after her final Latvian lesson in a private school in central Riga, ready for when she takes her own exam.

“I took the Russian passport in 2011 to easily visit my sick parents in Belarus. They are gone now.”

Russia stepped up shelling of Bakhmut, hoping to take it by Tuesday, Ukraine’s top general leading the besieged city’s defence said, after Russia’s Wagner mercenary group appeared to ditch plans to withdraw from it.

Three people were injured in blasts in Kyiv’s Solomyanskyi district and two when drone wreckage fell in the Sviatoshyn district, both west of the capital’s centre, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram.

Kyiv’s military administration said drone wreckage fell on a runway at Zhuliany airport, one of the capital’s two passenger airports, drawing emergency services there, although there was no fire.

Russia launched a wave of drone, missile and air strikes on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, officials said on Monday, as Moscow stepping up attacks while preparing for its cherished Victory Day holiday celebrating the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.

As many as 16 missile strikes had targeted the cities of Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odesa regions, in addition to 61 airstrikes and 52 rocket salvos on Ukrainian positions and populated areas, the General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said in its morning update on the fighting.

Ukrainian air defences destroyed all 35 Iranian-made Shahed drones Russia had launched, the military said.

Kyiv’s mayor said at least five people were wounded in the capital amid damage to a fuel depot, cars, buildings and infrastructure.

“Unfortunately, there are dead and wounded civilians, high-rise buildings, private homes and other civilian infrastructure were damaged,” the military said.

A food warehouse was set ablaze in the Black Sea city of Odesa.