???? Live: Russia launches mass strikes on Ukraine ahead of May 9 Victory Day holiday

Issued on: 08/05/2023 – 08:55

8:00am: Russia steps up strikes on Ukraine ahead of May 9 Victory Day holiday

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.

The fresh attacks come as Moscow prepares for Tuesday’s Victory Day parade, a key event for President Vladimir Putin, who has evoked the spirit of the Soviet triumph over Nazi Germany, having accused Ukraine of being in the grip of a new kind of fascism. FRANCE 24’s correspondent in Ukraine Gulliver Cragg says that “the fear is that the Russians may have finally received the order to take back Bakhmut in time for the 9th of May tomorrow”.

03:15

1:43am: At least five wounded due to Russian strikes on Kyiv, city officials say

At least five people were wounded due to Russian strikes on Kyiv, city officials said early on Monday, as Moscow launched another large-scale attack on Ukraine.

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

Klitschko said drone wreckage fell on a two-storey building in the Sviatoshyn region, adding that blasts continued in Kyiv.

The city’s military administration said there was destruction as a result of the attacks.

12:45am: More than 1,600 evacuated from areas near Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

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 late on Sunday.

The head of the UN’s nuclear power watchdog warned on Saturday that the situation around the plant has become “potentially dangerous” as Moscow-installed officials began evacuating people from nearby areas.

Ukraine is expected to start soon a much-anticipated counteroffensive to retake Russian-held territory, including in the Zaporizhzhia region.

• Key developments from Sunday, May 7:

The ongoing evacuation of a town close to the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia power plant in Ukraine has prompted the UN nuclear watchdog to warn of an increasingly unpredictable situation.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Wagner mercenary group appeared to ditch plans to withdraw from Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, saying they had been promised more arms by Moscow.

Read yesterday’s live blog to see how the day’s events unfolded