(Reuters) – Russia carried out drone, missile and air strikes on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities through the night, escalating attacks in the run-up to its cherished Victory Day holiday that celebrates the defeat of Nazi Germany.
CONFLICT
* 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.
EU WEIGHS SANCTIONS ON CHINA
* The European Union has proposed sanctions on Chinese firms accused of selling equipment that could be used in weapons to support Russia’s war machine, the Financial Times said.
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(Edited by Clarence Fernandez and Mark Heinrich)
