May 9, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine has moved here.

All but two of the 25 cruise missiles fired by Russia overnight Tuesday were intercepted by the Ukrainian Air Force, officials said. According to the Pentagon, the Ukrainian military downed a Russian missile using the Patriot missile defense system.

Here are other headlines you should know:

Anticipated counteroffensive: There’s been recent rumors of a looming ?Ukrainian counteroffensive?against Russia. UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said Tuesday that the planned move won’t be a decisive breakthrough and that people shouldn’t expect a film-like counteroffensive because, he says, “the real world doesn’t work like that.” At a joint news conference with Cleverly, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he thinks Ukraine has the resources it needs to retake territory in the anticipated counteroffensive. Blinken’s comments come on the same day the US announced?an additional $1.2 billion?in aid to Ukraine intended to bolster air defenses and keep up ammunition supplies.

Journalist killed near Bakhmut: Arman Soldin, a video journalist for Agence France-Presse was killed near the embattled city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, the French news agency?said on Twitter.?Soldin, who was a French citizen with Bosnian origins, was killed by rocket fire on the outskirts of the town of Chasiv Yar, near Bakhmut, AFP said, citing colleagues who witnessed the incident. He was with four colleagues at the time of the attack but the other journalists were not injured, the news agency said. French President Emmanuel Macron mourned Soldin’s death in a tweet on Tuesday.

Ukraine’s grain: Bridget A. Brink, the US ambassador to Ukraine, accused Russia on Tuesday of “again blocking ships from loading grain in Ukraine’s ports to feed people who need it around the world.” The US official referenced similar comments on the topic made by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier on Tuesday, where he accused Russia of “using people’s hunger as a weapon in its war against Ukraine.

Bridget A. Brink, the US ambassador to Ukraine, accused Russia on Tuesday of “again blocking ships from loading grain in Ukraine’s ports to feed people who need it around the world.”

The US official referenced similar comments on the topic made by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier on Tuesday.

Farhan Haq, UN deputy spokesman for the Secretary-General, said two inspections of ships did happen on Tuesday.

The news comes a day after the UN said there had been no ship inspections as part of the grain deal for two days. Ukraine on Monday accused Russia of effectively bringing the grain deal to a halt by not inspecting ships.

Some context: The?Black Sea Grain Initiative?is an agreement between Ukraine and Russia, brokered by the UN and Turkey, that was established in July 2022 to guarantee safe passage for ships carrying grain and oilseeds — some of Ukraine’s most important exports.??

Talks to extend the initiative are ongoing.?The Black Sea grain deal was last extended on March 18 for 60 days, and is set to expire on May 18.?

French President Emmanuel Macron at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China on April 7.

French President Emmanuel Macron mourned the death of Arman Soldin, a video journalist working for AFP who was killed in Ukraine.

Soldin was killed on Tuesday by rocket fire on the outskirts of the town of Chasiv Yar, near Bakhmut, AFP said, citing colleagues who witnessed the incident.?

Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine’s permanent representative to the UN, also tweeted in French about Soldin’s death, which translated to him saying the journalist “paid with his life for his courage” and offered condolences to Soldin’s loved ones.

?The Kremlin-backed authorities in the occupied Ukrainian city of Kamianka-Dniprovska in the southern Zaporizhzhia region are evacuating families and public sector workers further into Russian-held territory, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a statement.

Late Thursday, Yevgeniy Balitskiy,?the acting governor?of the occupied parts of the Zaporizhzhia region –?who is backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin?–?announced his administration would evacuate people from places near the war’s southern front line.

Yesterday, Yurii Malashko, Ukraine’s governor of Zaporizhzhia, said in a television interview that he understood some Moscow-backed officials were leaving occupied towns, and offering to evacuate people with Russian passports, ahead of the anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Ivan Fedorov, the Ukraine-elected mayor of Melitopol — a city in Zaporizhzhia — told Ukrainian TV that it was not a “mass evacuation,” but rather “some hundreds evacuated for show.” He claimed that Russia was sending more forces to the southern front line and that, in Melitopol, troops had started mining administrative buildings, kindergartens and schools.

Fedorov advised people in the occupied areas to be prepared for the counteroffensive by finding shelter, charging power banks and stocking up on food and water.?

The Ukrainian military downed a Russian missile using the Patriot missile defense system, Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said Tuesday.

Ryder added that the US and its partners would continue to “rush ground-based air defense capabilities and munitions to help Ukraine control its sovereign skies and to help Ukraine defense its citizens from Russia.”

Arman Soldin, a video journalist for Agence France-Presse, walks in a trench as he covers the war in Ukraine on March 18, 2023.

A journalist for Agence France-Presse was killed near the embattled city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, the French news agency?said on Twitter.?

Soldin, who was a French citizen with Bosnian origins, was killed by rocket fire on the outskirts of the town of Chasiv Yar, near Bakhmut, AFP said, citing colleagues who witnessed the incident.

He was with four colleagues at the time of the attack but the other journalists were not injured, the news agency said.

Soldin is one of the several known journalists killed since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, including Fox News photojournalist Pierre Zakrzewski and consultant Oleksandra “Sasha” Kuvshynova, journalist and documentarian Brent Renaud, and photojournalist Maks Levin.

CNN’s Xiaofei Xu contributed reporting.

Lawmakers in the French National Assembly on Tuesday approved a motion calling on the French government and the European Union to list Russia’s private military group Wagner as a terrorist organization.

The vote passed with all 331 representatives present voting in favor.

The motion — considered a symbolic move from the members of the assembly — also calls the French government to push for the United Nations to list Wagner as a terrorist organization.

Wagner Group is currently on the sanction lists of the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union.??

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that he thinks Ukraine has the resources it needs to retake territory in an anticipated counteroffensive.

“They have in place … what they need to continue to be successful in regaining territory that was seized by force by Russia over the last 14 months,” Blinken said at a joint news conference with UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.

Blinken’s comments come on the same day the US announced?an additional $1.2 billion in aid to Ukraine intended to bolster air defenses and keep up ammunition supplies.

UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly arrives at 10 Downing Street in London on May 2.

Ukraine has demonstrated huge courage and resistance since Russia’s invasion began, but people shouldn’t expect a film-like counteroffensive from Kyiv, UK’s top diplomat said during his visit to the United States Tuesday.??

“The real world doesn’t work like that,” UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said.

His?remarks come amid rumors of a?looming Ukrainian counteroffensive?against Russia.

“This is the real world. This is not a Hollywood movie,” Cleverly said.?

He also expressed London’s willingness to see China play a more constructive role in ending the war.?

“We know that (Chinese President) Xi enjoys a significant degree of influence with Vladimir Putin,” Cleverly said.?“If through his intervention he can help restore the sovereignty of Ukraine, and get Russian troops out of that country, I’m not going to be critical of that,” he said.

Cleverly admitted that whether China could make a meaningful intervention remains to be seen.?

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky walks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to a joint press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday.

The US announced a new aid package to Ukraine as Russia celebrated Victory Day with an annual parade that was notably scaled back this year due to security concerns related to the war in Ukraine.

Here’s everything you need to know:

US aid to Ukraine: The US announced a $1.2 billion security assistance package to?Ukraine Tuesday. The package includes 155 mm artillery rounds, additional air defense systems and munitions and drone ammunition, as well as equipment to help “integrate Western air defense launchers, missiles, and radars” with Ukraine’s existing systems. The package will fall under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which means it will be contracted and purchased from manufacturers instead of pulled directly from Defense Department stocks in a drawdown. The US has now given Ukraine $37.6 billion in military aid.

The EU chief visits Ukraine: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is?in Kyiv to mark Europe Day?– a celebration of peace and unity on the continent. In a joint news conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, she discussed European solidarity in areas such as grain export and more ammunition.

Germany and China talk Russia’s war on the sidelines: German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock held a joint news conference in Berlin with China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang, and said Germany wants Beijing to promise it won’t help Russia avoid European sanctions.?“It is particularly critical if Russian weaponry companies obtain war-related goods,” she said, adding that all countries — China included — should take action to oblige their companies.?“Neutrality means taking the side of the aggressor,” Baerbock said.?

Despite recent nuclear saber-rattling by senior Russian officials, the United States has detected no signs of movement or changes to Russian nuclear forces, a senior US military official and senior administration official told CNN.

As a result, the US has made no changes to its own posture, according to these same officials.

Russian leaders have repeatedly raised the prospect of nuclear war in recent months. With each threat, the US and its allies have monitored Russian nuclear forces for signs of movement or preparations to deploy them.

Most recently, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in late April that the threat of nuclear conflict is “growing every day.”

“Is there such a prospect today? (Unfortunately,) yes. And it is growing every day for well-known reasons,” he said.

It wasn’t the first time this year Medvedev had raised the prospect of nuclear war. In January, he posted to Telegram about US and NATO support for Ukraine, noting, “defeat of a nuclear power in a conventional war may trigger a nuclear war.”

On Tuesday, Russia’s Victory Day parade showcased parts of Russia’s nuclear forces including the country’s state of the art air defense system, the S-400, and its intercontinental ballistic system, the Yars.

“A true war has been unleashed against our motherland,” Putin said on Tuesday, claiming falsely that the West had provoked the war in Ukraine. “We have repelled international terrorism and to fit we will defend the residents of Donbas and secure our own safety. Russia has no unfriendly nations in the West or in the East.”

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, right, and China's Foreign Minister Qin Gang speak to the media after a meeting on May 9, in Berlin, Germany.

Germany wants Beijing to promise it won’t help Russia avoid European sanctions, while China warns Berlin and Europe about cutting economic ties with China, as the two countries’ diplomatic chiefs meet in Berlin Tuesday.?

Imposed sanctions should not be “undermined in a roundabout way,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said at a joint news conference.?

“It is particularly critical if Russian weaponry companies obtain war-related goods,” she said, adding that all countries — China included — should take action to oblige their companies.?

Baerbock welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and urged China to play a more decisive role in ending Russian’s war in Ukraine.?

China, on the other hand, expressed concern over the rising talks of Europe “de-risking” its relationship with China.?

De-risking refers to the concept of “financial institutions terminating or restricting business relationships with clients or categories of clients to avoid, rather than manage, risk,” according to the US Department of State. ?

“We must firmly oppose the so-called decoupling exercise and maintain a high degree of vigilance against the new Cold War. Germany, China and Europe should join hands to safeguard the stability and smoothness of the global industrial and supply chains,” he added.?

What other leaders are saying: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called for more diverse European trade ties, including new deals with countries such as Mexico, India, Australia and Kenya in a speech at the European Parliament Tuesday.?

European Council President Ursula Von der Leyen also called for de-risking the EU’s relationship with China through diplomacy instead of de-coupling in a speech back in March before she embarked on a joint visit to Beijing with French President Emmanuel Macron.?

Qin’s visit to Berlin unveils a busy week of China-Europe diplomacy in the bloc, with Qin flying to Paris Wednesday and then Oslo, and Baerbock heading to Paris late Tuesday for an expected meeting with Macron.?

155mm artillery shells in the production shop at the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant on April 12, 2023 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The U.S. Army is rapidly moving to scale up the production of the ammunition built at the plant and being supplied to Ukraine.

The US announced a $1.2 billion security assistance package to?Ukraine Tuesday, as Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian forces looms.

The package includes 155 mm artillery rounds, additional air defense systems and munitions and drone ammunition, as well as equipment to help “integrate Western air defense launchers, missiles, and radars” with Ukraine’s existing systems.

Various senior Ukrainian officials expressed their gratitude to the US for the latest round of defense aid.?

“We appreciate this sign of solidarity with??????shown on a symbolic day for us – Europe Day and the Day of Victory over Nazism in World War II. Together we’re moving towards a new victory!” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a tweet.?

Ukraine’s defense chief Oleksii Reznikov also welcomed the news, calling the new aid “a new package of security assistance.”

CNN reported?Monday the announcement was expected.

The package, first reported by the?Associated Press, will fall under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which means it will be contracted and purchased from manufacturers instead of pulled directly from Defense Department stocks in a drawdown. Instead of supplying Ukraine with the weapons it currently needs, USAI packages are intended to create a medium- and long-term supply for Ukraine.

With the new package announcement, the US marks $37.6 billion in military aid to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden administration, including $36.9 billion since the beginning of the war in February 2022.

Even after the Ukrainian counteroffensive begins, the US will continue to send military aid to Ukraine, according to a US military official, both to sustain Ukraine’s military force against dug-in Russian troops and to provide new equipment.?

CNN’s Yulia Kesaieva in Kyiv?contributed to this post.

Ukraine's President?Volodymyr?Zelensky?attends a joint press conference with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Kyiv, Ukraine, on May 9.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday criticized “protectionist measures” from neighboring countries which limit imports of Ukrainian grain, saying they are “absolutely unacceptable.”?

The EU last week adopted a temporary measure that bans wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower seed originating in Ukraine from being exported to Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, after those countries raised concerns over local farmers being undercut by a bottleneck of cheap Ukrainian grain.?

Addressing Zelensky’s concerns, von der Leyen described the grain topic as a “challenging situation” and vowed to set up a joint “coordination platform” to get grain exports “fully functioning again.”

“The immediate priority now is that the grain transit goes seamlessly and at the lowest possible cost outside of Ukraine towards the European Union,” she said.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen shakes hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, following their press-conference in Kyiv on May 9.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Tuesday that Russia is seeking to destroy values of freedom in Ukraine because it is afraid of the country’s path to the European Union.

“We Europeans cherish our liberty, our democracy, our freedom of thought and speech,” von der Leyen said alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a visit to Kyiv to mark Europe Day.?

“They are afraid of the success you represent and the example you show, and they are afraid of your path to the European Union,” she said.

Von der Leyen added that Russia has “dramatically failed,” and Ukraine is “fighting back successfully.”

A Ukrainian service member walks near residential buildings damaged by a Russian military strike in?Bakhmut, Ukraine, on April 21.

Russia has failed to capture the eastern city of Bakhmut before the May 9 deadline — a day when Russia marks the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelensky said Tuesday

“Unfortunately, the city does not exist anymore. Everything is fully destroyed,” he added.

Zelensky urges more ammo: The Ukrainian president also said ammunition?the European Union?has pledged to deliver to Ukraine is already needed on the battlefield, calling for faster deliveries.?

“Ukraine daily demonstrates efficiency of our defense?against Russian aggression. Every intercepted terrorists’ missile, every success of our warriors in defeating Russian attacks, these are the proofs that we can win over this aggressor,” Zelensky said.

“The main thing is the proportionality of our abilities to the abilities that the aggressor has. And in this context, I have thanked Ursula for the readiness of the European Union to provide Ukraine this badly needed ammunition, one billion artillery shells, and we have also discussed the key issues, the speed of the procurement and delivery of this ammunition, because they are needed on the battlefield already now,” he said.?

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin marked May 9 with the annual Victory Day parade and launched yet another scathing attack on the West,?accusing it of holding Ukraine hostage to its anti-Russian plans.?He also claimed that “real war” has been unleashed against Russia.?

Russia held its annual celebration to mark the Soviet Union’s role in defeating Nazi Germany in World War II. In past years, tens of tanks have streamed across Red Square as jets have ripped through the skies in a flex of Russia’s military might. But this year’s parade was a quieter affair: A single T-34 tank – a relic from the Soviet era – led out this year’s mechanized column, and the flypast was canceled.

A T-34 tank is driven during the Victory Day parade in Moscow on May 9.

Here are the latest developments:

People watch the Victory Day military parade in Moscow on May 9.

Wagner founder and financier Yevgeny Prigozhin has criticized the Russian military’s focus on the Victory Day parade in Moscow, which comes just as Ukraine is about to launch a counteroffensive.

In the latest in a series of rants directed at Russia’s military leadership in Moscow, Prigozhin claimed Ukrainian forces were on Tuesday “tearing up the flanks” in the direction of Bakhmut and “regrouping at Zaporizhzhia.”

“And a counteroffensive is about to begin,” he said during a long stream on his social media accounts on Tuesday.

Prigozhin claimed that Russians should pay more attention to unfolding events in Ukraine, rather than the televised Victory Day parade.

“They absolutely, clearly say that the counteroffensive will be on the ground, not on TV. In our country everybody thinks that we should do everything on TV and celebrate the Victory Day,” he added.

The Wagner founder went on to say Victory Day belonged to a previous generation.

“Victory Day is the victory of our grandfathers,” he said. “We haven’t earned that victory one millimeter.”

Wagner head Yevgeniy Prigozhin has criticized the Russian military leadership for their lack of support for his fighters and for failing to hold the lines near Bakhmut, in a long stream posted on his social media accounts.

“Today [Tuesday], one of the units of the Ministry of Defense fled from one of our flanks, abandoning their positions. They all fled and left a front nearly two kilometers wide and 500 meters deep. Good thing we blocked it somehow,” Prigozhin said.

Prigozhin went on to say his fighters would be able to take the city if they were supplied with enough ammunition — but that Moscow had backtracked from its initial promises.

“We were promised on May 7 that we would be given ammunition,” he explained.?

In the morning of May 8, Prigozhin said that Moscow gave an order to provide Wagner with “everything” they wanted. However, they were subsequently only provided with “10% of what was requested,” he claimed.

“We were simply blatantly lied to,” Prigozhin said.

The Wagner founder went on to say the Russian Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov was to blame for the decision.

“If all the tasks are performed in order to deceive the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, either the Supreme Commander-in-Chief will tear you’re a** up or the Russian people, who will be very upset if the war is lost,” Prigozhin added.

The Wagner founder added that his fighters would not leave Bakhmut and that they would “insist for a few more days.”

Some context: This rant is just the latest in the ongoing spat between Prigozhin’s private mercenary group and Moscow’s military leadership. Last week, Prigozhin launched an explosive tirade against Russia’s defense ministry, accusing them of sitting like “fat cats” while his men died in Bakhmut. He threatened to withdraw completely from the embattled Ukrainian city, which Russia has for months failed to capture.

However, Prigozhin appeared to change his mind Sunday, after securing concessions from the government. He announced his forces would stay in Bakhmut because Moscow promised “to give us ammunition and weapons, as much as we need to continue further actions.”

But this latest rant shows the dispute between Prigozhin and Moscow is far from settled.

CNN’s Christian Edwards in London contributed to this post.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on May 9.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged Europe to not be intimidated by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “show of force,” during a speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday.

“In Moscow, 2,200 kilometers (more than 1300 miles) northeast of here, Putin is today deploying his soldiers, tanks and missiles. Let us not be intimidated by such show of force,“ Scholz said, referring to Russia’s Victory Day parade.

Scholz continued to say that Ukrainians were “paying with their lives” for the “delusion of their powerful neighboring state,” reiterating his support for Ukraine.

Scholz also warned in a news conference with the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, Europe’s next round of sanctions on Russia will “not be the last” and that the bloc will be on track to discuss further improvements.

Russian President Vladimir Putin gives a speech during the Victory Day military parade at Red Square in central Moscow, Russia, on May 9.

One tank. Some very young soldiers. And a distinctly warped message.

The display on Red Square for May 9, for decades a moment when Russia’s staggering sacrifice in the Great Patriotic War was sombrely honored, rang hollow. In 2023, it became a backdrop for the Kremlin head’s poor decision-making.

Putin’s speech was littered with references to Russia being sinned against — to his wider narrative that the invasion and war he started in Ukraine was foisted upon him by NATO. It is odd to hear as Russia gathers to honor the millions of Soviet citizens who died fighting the Nazis. The key question will be how many in the crowd felt that dissonance too.

The substance of the parade itself was also telling. There was only one tank: a T-34, a model made 89 years ago, before Putin was even born, raising the question of why they decided to include any tanks at all.

The level of hardware on display seemed thin: understandable perhaps for a military being mauled on a wide and relentless frontline. But again, it raises the enduring bind for the Kremlin.

They keep having to prove their strength, their might, yet have little actual might left to do it with. The exercise ends up being one of revealing weakness.

No jets flew by. The Kremlin itself had — according to its own press release —? come under drone attack just days earlier. All incompatible with Putin’s unique sales point —? that under him Russia is impregnable and respected again.

In the background too lurks the real war’s progress. The constant side drama with Russia’s most prominent military figure — the Wagner mercenary head Yevgeny Prigozhin — continued to play out. He threatened to leave the key city of Bakhmut unless he got more artillery shells, then said he was definitely leaving tomorrow, then said he would stay. He chose the moment of the parade to release a statement saying in fact Russian MoD troops had abandoned positions around Bakhmut and he had been threatened with treason charges if he left. This is not a message of unity.

And secondly, Russia’s wrath appears neutered. For yet another night, a wave of drone and missile attacks was thwarted by Ukraine’s air defenses. Over the past week, lives have been lost and civilians injured by debris from destroyed drones or missiles that have got through.

But above all, Ukraine’s air defense has proven potent — and Moscow less so.

It raises again the long-term question of this war: Is a weak Russia dangerous or just weak?

Evan Gershkovich appears before a hearing to consider an appeal on his arrest in Moscow, on April 18.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Russia is considering the United States’ request for consular access to detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, Russia’s state news agency Ria Novosti reported Tuesday.

RIA Novosti adds Moscow has seen only “attempts of pressure and threats from Washington on the subject.”

The US State Department has yet to comment.

Some background: Gershkovich, a US citizen, was arrested in Russia in March on espionage charges, in a sign of the Kremlin’s crackdown on foreign media news outlets since it invaded Ukraine last year.

The Wall Street Journal has vehemently denied the spying accusations against Gershkovich.

Gerschkovich is currently being held in a pre-trial detention center at the notorious Lefortovo prison in Moscow until May 29. Last month, he appeared in Moscow City Court – where he was pictured standing in a glass cage – to ask that his pre-trial detention be under house arrest rather than jail. His appeal was denied.

US State Department principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said last month that Washington was “deeply disappointed” that Moscow had rejected their request to visit Gershkovich.?

Moscow’s initial rejection was in retaliation to Washington’s failure to provide visas to Russian journalists from Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s pool when he visited the United Nations in April.

Russian President Vladimir?Putin?delivers a speech during a military parade on Victory Day in Red Square in central Moscow, Russia, on May 9.

Russian President Vladimir Putin used the annual Victory Day parade to launch yet another scathing attack on the West,?accusing it of holding Ukraine hostage to its anti-Russian plans.?

He also again drew comparisons, falsely, between the conflict in Ukraine and the fight against Nazi forces in World War II,?saying that civilisation is at a turning point and claiming that “real war” has been unleashed against Russia.?

Throughout the short address, Putin?praised Russian troops fighting in what the Kremlin calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine, saying the country is “proud” of everyone who fights on the frontlines.?

However, no mention was made of the high casualties suffered by Russian troops, which are estimated to be in the tens of thousands.?

Russia’s Victory Day parade was a more modest spectacle than in previous years, with only one tank on display.

This comes the day after CNN reported on the state of Russia’s military hardware being deployed in Ukraine.

A video, seemingly filmed in late March, showed a cargo train loaded with Soviet tanks being transported somewhere in Russia. “Wow,” a woman said, pointing her phone at the train chugs along. “This is the second train, there was one just like it before.”

Moscow has been known to bring out older military equipment from storage to help it wage war in Ukraine – but these are different.

They’re so old, you can find them in museums.

The tanks are T-55s, a model first commissioned by the Soviet Union’s Red Army in 1948, shortly after the end of World War II. Cheap, reliable, easy to use and easy to maintain, Russia used this model to quash uprisings in former Warsaw Pact countries, rolling through Hungary in 1956, then Prague, capital of what was then Czechoslovakia, in 1968.

Photographs shared by pro-Kremlin bloggers now appear to show these tanks in Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine.

“The Soviets never threw anything away,” historian John Delaney, a senior curator at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, Cambridge, told CNN. “There’s probably a significant number of them sitting in sheds waiting to be reconfigured.”

Read the full report:

T-55 Russian tanks on the streets of Prague

Related article Russia is sending museum pieces into war, but experts say they may still be effective | CNN

People watch military hardware moving along the Garden Ring road after the Victory Day military parade in central Moscow, Russia, on May 9.

Russia traditionally uses the Victory Day parade in Moscow to flex its military might. In previous years’ parades, tens of tanks have streamed across the Red Square as jets and helicopters ripped through the skies above.

But this year’s parade was a more modest event.

There was only one tank leading this year’s mechanized column – the T-34, a Soviet-era vehicle fielded by Russia during World War II.

At the 2022 parade, the T-34 was accompanied by several of the more modern T-90 and T-14. Neither of these models appeared in Wednesday’s celebration. Instead, the T-34 was accompanied by a procession of multipurpose fighting vehicles – the Tigr.

Tigr-M and VPK-Ural armored vehicles were also on display, but the main focus was the country’s state of the art air defense system – the S-400 – and its intercontinental ballistic system – the Yars, which forms part of Russia’s nuclear forces.

According to state news agency TASS, 125 items of military hardware were on display.

Despite weather forecasts showing relatively clear skies above Moscow, the usual fly past above Red Square was canceled, state media reported, without providing an explanation.

Kim?Jong?Un?attends a meeting in Pyongyang,?North?Korea, on March 1.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Tuesday congratulated Russia on its annual Victory Day in a letter to?his Russian counterpart.

According to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim’s letter expressed warm greetings to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Russian army and people of Russia for their fight “to realize international justice and defend global peace” against so-called “imperialists.”

Kim said that under Putin’s leadership, Russia will “smash all challenges and threats posed by hostile forces”?and prevail in its quest to ensure the country’s “sovereignty, dignity and regional stability,” KCNA said.?

North Korea is one of only a handful of countries to show outright support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and has blamed the United States and the West for the?war.

The KCNA report made no mention of Ukraine.?

Russian President Vladimir?Putin gives a speech in Red Square in central Moscow, Russia on May 9.

Russian President Vladimir Putin concluded his Victory Day speech Tuesday by equating the efforts of Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine, falsely, to Soviet forces who helped defeat the Nazis in World War II.

Putin has often invoked the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany to justify Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying that the offensive is aimed at “denazifying” the nation – ignoring the fact that President Volodymyr Zelensky is Jewish and lost relatives in the holocaust.

Some analysts say the Russian leader is committing some of the same blunders that doomed Germany’s 1941 invasion of the USSR — while using?“Hitler-like tricks and tactics” to justify his brutality.

Russian President Vladimir Putin makes an appearance at a Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Russia, on Tuesday, May 9.

In his Victory Day speech in Red Square Tuesday, President Vladimir Putin said Russia honors the sacrifice of the allied armies of the United States, the United Kingdom and China in World War II.

Putin suggested that “experience of solidarity” could be?a foundation toward?building a “multipolar world.”

“I am convinced that the experience of solidarity and partnership in the days of the struggle against a common threat is our heritage and a reliable base of support in our movement towards a multipolar world based on trust and indivisible security, equal opportunities for unique and free development for all nations in the world,” Putin said.

Remember: Putin’s remarks come just hours after Ukrainian officials said their air defenses had intercepted all but two of 25 cruise missiles fired by Russia overnight — the latest aerial barrage launched by Moscow’s forces amid the Russian leader’s unprovoked war against Ukraine.

No ships have been inspected for the past two days under a UN-brokered deal to facilitate vital grain exports from Ukraine, the Office of the UN Coordinator of the Black Sea Grain Initiative said Monday.

Earlier Monday, Ukrainian officials blamed Russia for effectively bringing the initiative to a halt, accusing Moscow of not registering or inspecting ships intended to go to and from Ukrainian ports.

The initiative was established in July 2022 to guarantee safe passage for ships exporting?grain and oilseeds?from Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea, much of which supports humanitarian operations in heavily-dependent countries like Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Somalia and Yemen.

The deal was last extended on March 18 for 60 days and is set to expire on May 18.?Talks between the key parties have so far brought no agreement.

Russian President Vladimir Putin falsely claimed that the West had provoked the war in Ukraine during his Victory Day speech in Red Square on Tuesday.

The Russian leader has previously used similar rhetoric in an attempt to justify his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

Some background: Putin was using this type of language in relation to Ukraine long before launching the war. In a lengthy?essay?penned in July 2021, he referred to Russians and Ukrainians as “one people,” and suggested the West had corrupted Ukraine and yanked it out of Russia’s orbit through a “forced change of identity.”

But Ukrainians, who in the last three decades have sought to align more closely with Western institutions like the European Union and NATO, have pushed back against the notion that they are little more than the West’s “puppet.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed falsely in a speech during the annual Victory Day parade in Moscow that a “true war” is being waged against his country, despite having launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year.

The largest land war in Europe has sparked?a massive humanitarian crisis, leaving thousands of civilians dead and millions displaced.

“We have repelled international terrorism and to fit we will defend the residents of Donbas and secure our own safety,” he said, referring to the eastern region of Ukraine that has largely been occupied by Russian forces since Putin ordered the invasion of his neighbor in February last year.

“Russia has no unfriendly nations in the west or in the east,” Putin also claimed.

Victory Day is the most significant in Putin’s calendar, and he has long used it to rally public support and demonstrate the country’s military prowess.

On Tuesday, he claimed that he wants a peaceful future.

“As the majority of people on this planet we want to see the future peaceful, free and stable,” he said. “We believe any ideology of supremacy due to its nature is repulsive, criminal and deadly.”

Russian RS-24 Yars ballistic missiles move toward Red Square to attend a Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Russia, on Tuesday, May 9.

Russia’s annual Victory Day parade is underway in Moscow’s Red Square, where Russian President Vladimir Putin is watching and expected to make a speech.?

Russian Defense Minster Sergei Shoigu inspected the troops and congratulated them on the 78th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany in World War II

Victory Day is the most significant in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s calendar, and he has long used it to rally public support and demonstrate the country’s military prowess.

But this year, the grandeur of the parade contrasts with Russia’s faltering military campaign in Ukraine. Outside of Moscow, several regions in Russia — many near the border with Ukraine — scaled down preparations for the spectacle due to security concerns and a lack of military equipment to display.

Among the troops taking part in the parade today are servicemen who participated in what Russia calls “its special military operation” in Ukraine.?

Bridget A. Brink attends a ceremony in Kyiv, Ukraine on April 25.

The US Ambassador to Kyiv criticized Russia for another missile attack on the Ukrainian capital Tuesday as Moscow prepared for its annual?Victory Day parade.

Ukrainian officials said their air defenses intercepted all but two of 25 cruise missiles fired by Russia overnight Tuesday as Moscow’s aerial barrage intensified. No casualties were reported.

Russia’s Victory Day parade is an?exhibition of patriotism?marking the Soviet Union’s role in defeating Nazi Germany, which has long been used by the Kremlin to rally public support and demonstrate the country’s military prowess.

Ursula von der Leyen during a meeting in Prague, Czech Republic, on May 2.

European Commission President?Ursula von der Leyen arrived in Kyiv Tuesday to mark Europe Day, according to a post on her Twitter account.

The Ukrainian President on Monday proposed moving World War II Victory Day celebrations a day earlier to May 8 in a bill presented to lawmakers in Kyiv. May 9 would henceforth be celebrated as Europe Day in Ukraine, he added.?

Like Russia, Ukraine traditionally commemorates victory over the Nazis on May 9, but that date has become increasingly associated with a parade in Moscow, used by the Kremlin to flex its military might.?

All but two of 25 cruise missiles fired by Russia against Ukraine overnight Tuesday were intercepted by the country’s air defenses, the Ukrainian Air Force said in a statement.

The Ukrainian military warned earlier this week that Russia is trying to wear down Ukraine’s air defenses ahead of an anticipated counteroffensive.

A part of a cruise missile shot down during a Russian missile strike is seen in the backyard of a house in Kyiv, Ukraine on May 9.

Falling debris: Shrapnel from a downed missile landed in a private yard in?Kyiv’s Holosiivskyi district, Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said in a statement Tuesday. There was no damage and nobody was hurt, he said. Explosives experts and emergency responders were working at the scene, he added.?

The intercepted attacks Tuesday come after Klitschko said Russian strikes early Monday marked Moscow’s “most massive” drone attack on the capital.

Tvorchi attend the Eurovision contest in Liverpool, England, on May 7.

Tvorchi, the duo representing Ukraine at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, have launched a fundraiser for equipment to help Ukrainian babies born prematurely due to war stressors.?

The fundraiser is in partnership with Visa and United24, an official fundraising platform launched by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

According to United24, “because of the war, the number of such newborns has increased by at least 15% and behind this figure there are thousands of vulnerable children who were born prematurely and cannot survive without special assistance.”?

During the Eurovision opening ceremony on Sunday in the English city of Liverpool, the duo wore costumes with the names and weights of Ukrainian babies born prematurely displayed on their jackets.?

The goal of the initiative is to attract international support to raise nearly $270,000 to buy 10 incubators for Ukrainian infants, according to the United24 website.?

Eurovision is traditionally hosted by the defending champion’s country. Ukraine won the contest in 2022 but cannot host it due to the ongoing conflict.?The theme of Eurovision 2023 is “United by music” with the first semifinals to start on May 9.?

An explosion is seen in the sky over the city during a Russian missile strike in?Kyiv, Ukraine on May 9.

Ukrainian air defenses destroyed about 15 cruise missiles launched by Russia in the airspace over Kyiv in the early hours of Tuesday, a Ukrainian military official said.

In a Telegram post, Serhiy Popko, head of the city’s military administration, said preliminary information indicated there were no casualties and little damage caused.

Popko said the attack was “carried out by four Tu-95MS strategic bombers from the Caspian Sea region,” in the fifth air assault launched by Russia against Kyiv since the beginning of May.

Some context: The intercepted attacks Tuesday come after Kyiv’s mayor said Russian strikes early Monday marked Moscow’s “most massive” drone attack on the capital since the invasion began last year. The Ukrainian military has warned that Russia is trying to wear down Ukraine’s air defenses ahead of an anticipated counteroffensive.

It’s Victory Day in Russia, where an annual Moscow parade is set to take place in an?exhibition of patriotism?marking the Soviet Union’s role in defeating Nazi Germany in World War II.

The day is the most significant in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s calendar, and he has long used it to rally public support and demonstrate the country’s military prowess.

But in light of two recent alleged Kremlin drone attacks, deepening fissures between senior Russian officials over war tactics, and an expected Ukrainian spring offensive, tensions in Moscow are at an all-time-high ahead of the second parade since Russia launched its invasion.

Here are the latest developments:

The United States is set to announce a $1.2 billion aid package to Ukraine as early as Tuesday, according to a US official familiar with the package. It comes at a critical point with Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian forces looming.?

The package will include drones, artillery ammunition and air defense missiles as well as other capabilities, the official said.

The package — first reported by the Associated Press — will fall under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), which means it will be contracted and purchased from manufacturers instead of pulled directly from Defense Department stocks in a drawdown.

Instead of supplying Ukraine with the weapons it currently needs, USAI packages are intended to create a medium and long-term supply for Ukraine.

Last week, the Pentagon announced its 37th drawdown package for Ukraine since August 2021. The $300 million package included additional ammunition for the HIMARS rocket system, artillery and tank ammunition, anti-tank weapons and more.?

An apartment building damaged by remains of a drone shot down during a Russian overnight strike, in?Kyiv, Ukraine on May 8.

Russia’s wave of strikes on Ukraine early Monday was its “most massive” drone attack since the invasion began last year, Kyiv mayor?Vitali Klitschko?said.

Other attacks were recorded in Ukraine’s Kharkiv and Kherson regions.

The Ukrainian military said it repelled the assault on the capital, the latest in Moscow’s efforts to?wear down its air defense system. According to Kyiv’s mayor, “36 drones flew to the capital” but were shot down by air defense forces.

“However, debris from several drones damaged some social facilities and a residential high-rise building in Sviatoshyn district,” Klitschko said.

The mayor said the drone attack did not cause any deaths, “but five people were injured in two districts of the city.”?

“Three of them were in high-rise buildings. Two victims were hospitalized, one of them underwent surgery. Doctors say that there is no threat to their lives,” he added.

Shahed drones?are manufactured in Iran and have been frequently deployed by Russian forces in Ukraine.?

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the private Russian military group Wagner, said on Monday that preliminary information indicates that his fighters in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut have started to receive more ammunition.??

Prigozhin has repeatedly complained that his Wagner units are not receiving enough ammunition from Russia’s defense establishment. Last week, he announced they would?withdraw from Bakhmut?— a threat he now appears to be rowing back on.?

Earlier Monday, a?Ukrainian commander in Bakhmut?said his unit faces “constant” shelling and had seen no evidence of the Russian ammunition shortage that?Prigozhin had claimed.

A significant part of the Russian-installed administration of Skadovsk left the occupied city on Sunday, Ukrainian military officials said.?

The activities of Skadovsk’s district and city administrations were “suspended,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in its daily update.

On Saturday night, “the occupiers loaded documentation, office equipment, and other property of state institutions into vehicles,” before leaving with their families on Sunday morning, Ukrainian military officials said.

The General Staff claims the Russians planned to transport the “documents and looted property,” by sea, further into Russian-held territory.?

Skadovsk sits on the Black Sea.?

The statement said similar activity was occurring in the nearby villages of Krasne, Shevchenko, Shyroke, Ulianivka and Petrivka, as well as in Mykhailivka — some 28 kilometers (17 miles) away.?

Kremlin-backed authorities in the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol are in the process of?mobilizing residents who have Russian passports, the exiled city council claimed on Telegram.?

The Telegram post included a photo of a document which the authors said is a referral, received by a resident.?

“Draft boards have started working in Mariupol. The occupiers are already looking for citizens who do not fulfill their ‘military obligations’. The enemy plans to conscript men until August,” said Vadym Boichenko, the exiled Ukrainian mayor of Mariupol.

Denis Pushilin, head of the Russian-backed self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, which administers Mariupol, signed a decree allowing the mobilization of Russian citizens in the occupied region on March 31.?

In this vacant and damaged village, news of Russia’s evacuation of occupied?towns?along the southern front cannot come soon enough.

Ukrainian-held Mala Tokmachka, just over a mile (2 kilometers) from Russian-held territory in the?Zaporizhzhia?region, has been left ghostly and battered by shelling, leaving the central square pockmarked, and the school’s facade torn off. Shrapnel is mixed in with fallen pine cones.

Raisa, a local woman passing some Ukrainian soldiers on her bicycle, said the explosions had picked up recently and she had heard small arms fire from the nearby highway. “There is no way out for us,” she said, of the remaining 200 civilians. “We have no water, gas or power for more than a year.”

Just 9 miles (15 kilometers) down the road is?Polohy, a town that Russian occupiers said Friday they would evacuate, a process which local sources said had got underway at the weekend, although some Russian soldiers apparently remain in place.

The town is a focus for Ukraine’s spring counteroffensive. While Kyiv has said it will not announce its commencement so as to cause maximum surprise, recent statements from Russian officials in occupied areas about attacks have indicated at least its opening stages are likely underway.

Polohy is one of over a dozen frontline settlements that occupying forces announced Friday would be emptied of civilians. A Russian occupation official, Yuri Balitsky, said “we cannot risk the safety of people and will provide funds for organized travel, lump sum payments, accommodation and meals.” He added children would undergo rehabilitation and rest in children’s camps,” echoing the language of previous incidents that Ukraine has dubbed forced deportation and on which the International Criminal Court based a war crimes indictment against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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