Vladimir Putin set to cast invasion of Ukraine as part of holy struggle with west
Here are some images from the Victory Day celebrations taking place across Russia today, amid the backdrop of its invasion of Ukraine.Ukraine air attack on Belgorod injures eight, governor says
A Ukrainian air attack on Russia’s Belgorod region injured eight people and damaged scores of residential buildings and cars, the governor of the region bordering with Ukraine said on Thursday.
Among the wounded is an 11-year-old girl who was taken to a hospital, Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor said on the Telegram messaging app, Reuters reported.
About 34 flats in 19 apartment buildings were damaged, as well as three dozen cars in the city of Belgorod, the region’s administrative centre, Gladkov added.
Russia’s air defence systems destroyed 15 rockets launched from the RM-70 Vampir system, and one drone over the region, Russia’s defence ministry said.
Three drones were also downed over Russia’s Kursk region and two over the Bryansk region, the ministry said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app. All regions border Ukraine.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine. Kyiv has said often that destroying military, energy and transport infrastructure inside Russia undermines Moscow’s overall war efforts.Russia to mark second world war Victory Day as relations with west spiral towards crisis
Hello and welcome to the Ukraine live blog. We start with news that Russia is today marking the former Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two.
It comes as relations with the West spiral deeper into crisis over the advance of Russian troops against Ukraine’s Western-backed forces.
Vladimir Putin, who rose to power just eight years after the Soviet Union broke up, will speak at the Victory Day parade on Red Square though there will be less military hardware on display than in parades before Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Putin now casts the war as part of a holy struggle with the West, which he says has forgotten the role played by the Soviet Union in defeating Nazi Germany and the lesson that neither Napoleon Bonaparte nor Adolf Hitler could defeat Russia.
