As Russia gets ready to commemorate the anniversary of its victory over Nazi Germany, Putin has launched a number of attacks on the capital of Ukraine.
At least five persons were hurt by rocket attacks on Monday morning, according to officials in Kiev; similar explosions were also reported in a number of other areas.
Three people were hurt in Solomyanskyi, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko, while two more were hurt in the west of the city’s Sviatoshyn neighborhood.
Drone wreckage is also reported to have fallen on the runway at Zhuliany airport in the southwest, and to have hit a two-storey building in the central Shevchkivskyi area.
In the southern port city of Odessa, officials have posted footage of a food warehouse on fire, seemingly the result of a Russian attack.
Further blasts are reported in the southern Kherson region, the Zaporizhia region to the southeast, and eight locations in the Sumy region to the northeast.
Strikes against Russian targets in Ukraine have also increased in recent weeks, many of them targeting Crimea, a southern peninsula in the Black Sea held by Russia since the partial invasion of 2014.
Ukrainian officials have not confirmed their forces’ role in those attacks, but have stressed destroying key enemy infrastructure, such as those found in Crimea, represents crucial preparation for their forthcoming large-scale counteroffensive.
This morning’s wave of strikes come as the Putin regime prepares for Victory Day, a military parade scheduled to take place in Moscow tomorrow commemorating Russia’s defeat of Germany in the Second World War.
The symbolism of the event is of especial significance this year, given the president’s efforts to equate the leadership in Kyiv with Nazism as a justification for his so-called ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine.
Putin’s war has lasted fifteen months, seen thousands killed and millions displaced. He presently faces an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes over the forced deportation of Ukrainian children.
Meanwhile, his stranglehold over dissent and free expression in Russia has continued to intensify, most recently with the sentencing of opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza and detention of US journalist Evan Gershkovich.