Putin launches suicide drone attack on Kyivn – live

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.

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.

The British defence ministry has said Russian military recruiters are targeting central Asian migrant workers in Russia to serve in Ukraine.

“Recruiters have visited mosques and immigration offices to recruit. At immigration offices, staff who speak Tajik and Uzbek routinely attempt to recruit migrants,” the ministry said in its latest intelligence update.

It cited Radio Free Europe’s report of recruiters offering sign-up bonuses of USD $2,390 (£ 1889) and salaries of up to USD $4,160 (£3289) a month. “Migrants have also been offered a fast-track Russian citizenship path of six months to one year, instead of the usual five years,” the ministry said.

“The high monthly salary and sign-up bonuses will entice some migrant workers to sign up. These recruits are likely sent to the Ukrainian frontlines where the casualty rate is extremely high,” it added.

Recruiting migrants is part of the Russian Ministry of Defence’s attempts to fulfil its target of 400,000 volunteers to fight in Ukraine, the MoD said.

“The authorities are almost certainly seeking to delay any new overt mandatory mobilisation for as long as possible to minimise domestic dissent.”

Ukraine’s air force has said it has destroyed all 35 Iranian-made Shahed drones that Russia had launched overnight at different targets around the country.

“The Russian Federation (also) launched 16 missile strikes last night, in particular on the cities of Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odesa regions,” the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said in its daily update.

Additionally, 61 airstrikes and 52 attacks from the heavy rocket salvo fire systems were launched over the past day on the positions of Ukrainian forces and populated areas, the Ukrainian military command said.

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