Russian President Vladimir Putin announced yesterday that his army is fighting in Ukraine, defending “Motherland” from an “unacceptable threat” from the neighboring Western-backed country, seeking to awaken the patriotic spirit of Russians and rally their support for the conflict.
“I appeal to our armed forces, you are fighting for the Motherland, for its future,” Putin said, speaking from Red Square to thousands of soldiers participating in a military parade marking the anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Union over the Nazis in 1945, stressing that everything must be done “so that the horrors of a new total war are not repeated.”
Two and a half months into the offensive in Ukraine, fighting is centered on the Donbass in the east, after Russia had to give up its ambitions to control the country in the face of fierce resistance from Ukrainians receiving weapons from the West.
The Russian president is trying to describe the conflict in Ukraine as a continuation of the 1945 war, consistently calling his opponents neo-Nazis.
In front of thousands of soldiers marching under the Kremlin’s red walls, Vladimir Putin revisited his decision to attack Ukraine on February 24, reiterating that Kyiv was preparing to attack pro-Russian separatists in the country’s east, was aiming for an atomic bomb, and was receiving support from NATO (NATO) that, in his opinion, represents an existential threat to Russia.
“An absolutely unacceptable threat was created right at our borders,” he said, echoing the conversations of Ukrainian neo-Nazis, describing his attack on her as a “preemptive response” and “the only right decision.”
Since Vladimir Putin took office as President of Russia in 2000, the military parade has been dedicated to celebrating Victory Day on May 9, as well as to showcase Russia’s military might after the setback it suffered as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union. In Moscow, police officers deployed along the parade route through the city center wore the uniform with the letter Z on the right shoulder, which has become a symbol of the partisan war in Ukraine. This letter is printed on the machines of the units involved in the conflict.
During a parade in Novosibirsk, Siberia, WWII vehicles marked with the letter Z drove through the center of the city.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused his Russian counterpart of “forgetting everything that was important to the victors” in 1945.
In a speech marking the end of the World War in Europe, he stressed that “evil has returned to Europe”, comparing Russia’s invasion of his country to Nazi Germany’s aggression against European countries.
In a video message on Sunday evening, he condemned the “brutal bombing” in several regions of Ukraine, one of which resulted in the deaths of “60 civilians” on Saturday at a school in Bialogorivka, Luhansk region, stressing that it happened “as if not on May 8, as tomorrow is not May 9, but the world should be the master of the situation for all normal people.
“Millions of Ukrainians fought against Nazism, expelled the Nazis from Luhansk, expelled the Nazis from Donetsk, liberated Kherson, Melitopol and Berdyansk from the invaders, expelled the Nazis from Yalta, Simferopol, Kerch and all of Crimea, liberated Mariupol from the Nazis.” Zelensky listed cities in eastern and southern Ukraine occupied by Russian armed forces, as well as cities in Crimea that Russia annexed in 2014.
“They expelled the fascists from all over Ukraine, but the cities that I spoke about today inspire us especially, give us faith that we will drive the occupiers from our land,” he added.
There are no civilians at the metallurgical plant
In the Russian-controlled port city of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine, Ukrainian soldiers who continue to fight back at the massive Azovstal steel plant rule out surrender. “We can’t surrender because our lives don’t concern the Russians,” said Ilya Samoylenko, an intelligence officer. Leaving us alive, they don’t care.”
And 174 civilians, some of them with small children, arrived on eight buses Sunday night in Zaporozhye in the southeast of the country after they got out of the “Mariupol hell,” according to what I tweeted, United Coordinator UN Humanitarian Affairs in Ukraine Osnat Lubrani. About forty of them came from the Azovstal plant.
She told AFP the latest information indicated there were “no civilians” at the factory, adding that she “couldn’t verify that.”
Lugansk governor: There were 90 people in the destroyed school
The governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Gaidai, told the Russian-language TV channel Current Time that “at least 90 people” were on the scene at the time of the strike by Russian troops, stressing that “27” of them were rescued. The bombing resulted in the complete destruction of the school.
Russia has so far been able to claim full control of only one important city, Kherson in the south of the country, while the military attack, which many experts expected to be lightning fast, faced a number of obstacles, especially logistical ones.
“The enemy continues its offensive operations with the goal of complete control over the Donetsk, Lugansk and Kherson regions and the establishment of a land corridor between these regions and the occupied Crimea,” the headquarters of the Ukrainian military warned.
Germany marks the end of the world war… and its president speaks of successful negotiations
Hundreds of people across Germany marked the 77th anniversary of the end of World War II yesterday with a large police presence in anticipation of possible tension over the war in Ukraine. Hundreds of citizens laid flowers at the Soviet memorial in Berlin’s Treptow Park and paid tribute to the victims.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that the war in Ukraine highlighted the need to defend democracy, but that it had to do with modernizing and arming the German army, and pointed out that successful negotiations should not be conducted from a position of weakness. The German president added that the war in Ukraine highlighted the need to defend democracy, but it was about modernizing and arming the German army, and pointed out that successful negotiations should not be conducted from a position of weakness.
Fiji suspends arrest of giant yacht suspected of belonging to wealthy Russian
Yesterday, Fiji prosecutors announced that a court had suspended the seizure of a giant yacht allegedly owned by Russian billionaire Suleiman Karimov, who is under US sanctions over the war in Ukraine.
According to prosecutors, the $325 million yacht Amadea is still in the custody of the Fijian police and is barred from leaving the country.
Last week, a local court authorized the detention. But the appeals court announced on Friday a “temporary suspension” of the execution of the detention, a prosecutor’s office spokeswoman told AFP yesterday. Another hearing is scheduled for Thursday.
The yacht “Amadea” has a length of 107 meters and is equipped with a swimming pool, a jacuzzi, a helipad and a “winter garden” on the deck, according to the specialized website superyachtfan.com.
The G7 and the cessation of oil production in Russia
The UK announced measures to prevent the import of Russian industrial products and increase tariffs on them, especially on palladium and platinum.
The G7, at a hypothetical meeting on Sunday, decided to stop the “gradual” Russian oil. The White House announced in a statement that “the entire G-7 committed today to ban or phase out Russian oil imports.” He added that the decision “would deal a severe blow to the main artery that feeds Putin’s economy and deprive him of the income he needs to finance the war.”
At the EU level, member states will continue talks earlier in the week to lift the final hurdles to a European project to ban Russian oil that Hungary is blocking.
