On May 8, 2023, Russia launched a new wave of deadly strikes on Ukraine, just ahead of the Victory Day holiday. Ukraine's air defenses managed to shoot down 35 Iranian-made drones over Kyiv during Russia's latest nighttime assault, but attacks across Ukraine by the Kremlin's forces still managed to kill four civilians. The bombardments came as Moscow enforced tight security measures on the eve of traditional Red Square commemorations marking the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Second World War.
An exterior view of the highrise building damage in Kyiv is shown, the result of a Russian overnight strike Monday. (Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)
During the night, air raid alarms sounded for more than three hours, and five people in the Ukrainian capital were injured by falling drone debris. Drone wreckage struck a two-storey apartment building in Kyiv's western Svyatoshynskyi district, while other debris struck a car parked nearby, setting it on fire.
The Ukrainian defence ministry reported that Russian shelling of 127 targets across northern, southern, and eastern parts of Ukraine killed three civilians. The Kremlin's forces used tanks, drones, mortars, warplanes, multiple rocket launchers, and surface-to-air missiles to bombard Ukraine.
Russian long-range bombers launched up to eight cruise missiles at Ukraine's southern Odesa region, killing one person and injuring three. Some of the Soviet-era cruise missiles fired against the Odesa region self-destructed or fell into the sea before reaching their targets, according to Ukrainian air force spokesperson Yuri Ihnat.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has proposed a draft bill to parliament for a Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in the Second World War on May 8 and a Day of Europe on May 9, further distancing Kyiv from Moscow. Zelenskyy equated Russia's goals in Ukraine to those of the Nazis, stating, "Unfortunately, evil has returned. Although now it is another aggressor, the goal is the same—enslavement or destruction."
Russian media has reported that at least 21 Russian cities have canceled military parades for the first time in years, citing "security concerns" or "the current situation." Parades will still take place in Russia's largest cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg, but the use of drones has been banned in both cities ahead of Victory Day, and in the Russian capital, car-sharing services have been temporarily barred from the city center.
Russian-installed authorities have also begun evacuating residents of Tokmak, a town in the front-line southern Zaporizhzhia region, toward the Black Sea coast, Ukraine's General Staff said. Those working for Kremlin-appointed local authorities, as well as children and educational workers, are being relocated to Berdyansk, a Russian-occupied seaside city some 100 kilometers southeast. This report came just days after Yevhen Balitsky, the Russian-appointed governor of the partially occupied Zaporizhzhia region, ordered the evacuation of civilians from 18 settlements there, including Enerhodar, which neighbors the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Some analysts believe Kyiv might try to strike south into Zaporizhzhia in order to split Russian forces and cut Moscow's land link to occupied Crimea.
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