Updated: 8am, 10th May, 2022 (AEST)
Kyiv/Kharkiv, Ukraine
Reuters
Vladimir Putin exhorted Russians to battle in a defiant Victory Day speech on Monday, but was silent about plans for any escalation in Ukraine, despite Western warnings he might use his Red Square address to order a national mobilisation.
In Ukraine, there was no let up in fighting, with Kyiv reporting missile strikes in the southern port of Odesa and a renewed push by Russian forces to defeat the last Ukrainian troops holding out in a steelworks in ruined Mariupol.
Russian Tigr-M (Tiger) all-terrain infantry mobility vehicles and Yars intercontinental ballistic missile systems drive in Red Square during a military parade on Victory Day, which marks the 77th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, in central Moscow, Russia, on 9th May. PICTURE: Reuters/Maxim Shemetov.
Monday’s annual parade in Moscow – with the usual ballistic missiles and tanks rumbling across the cobblestones – was easily the most closely watched since the 1945 defeat of the Nazis that it celebrates.
Western capitals had openly speculated for weeks that Putin was driving his forces to achieve enough progress by the symbolic date to declare victory – but with few gains so far, might instead announce a national call-up for war.
The Russian president did neither, but repeated his assertions that his forces were again fighting Nazis.
“You are fighting for the Motherland, for its future, so that no one forgets the lessons of World War II. So that there is no place in the world for executioners, castigators and Nazis,” Putin said from the tribune outside the Kremlin walls.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in his own speech, promised Ukrainians they would triumph.
“On the Day of Victory over Nazism, we are fighting for a new victory. The road to it is difficult, but we have no doubt that we will win,” said Zelenskiy, wearing plain army garb with his shirt sleeves rolled up.
A hotel complex destroyed by a Russian missile during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is pictured in Odesa, Ukraine, on 8th May. PICTURE: Reuters/Igor Tkachenko
“Only dishonour and surely defeat”
The Soviet victory in World War II has acquired almost religious status in Russia under Putin, who has invoked the memory of the “Great Patriotic War” throughout what he calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Western countries consider that a false analogy to justify unprovoked aggression.
“There can be no victory day, only dishonour and surely defeat in Ukraine,” said British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace.
In Poland, the Russian ambassador was surrounded by protesters at a memorial ceremony and doused in red paint. Ambassador Sergei Andreyev, his face dripping and his shirt stained, said he was “proud of my country and my president”.
After an assault on Kyiv was beaten back in March by strong Ukrainian resistance, Russia poured more troops in for a huge offensive in the east last month.
Russian gains have been slow at best, and Western arms are flooding into Ukraine for an expected counter-attack.
Western military experts – many of whom initially predicted a quick Russian victory – now say Moscow could be running out of troops. A full declaration of war would let Putin activate reservists and send conscripts.
“Without concrete steps to build a new force, Russia can’t fight a long war, and the clock starts ticking on the failure of their army in Ukraine,” tweeted Phillips O’Brien, a professor of strategic studies at Britain’s University of St Andrews.
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The war still seems to enjoy strong public support in Russia, where independent journalism is effectively banned and state television says Russia is defending itself from NATO. Conscription would test that support.
Olga, participating in St Petersburg’s “immortal regiment” commemoration march, said she feared for her student son.
“I’m really worried about him. I know many mothers whose sons are now of conscription age…They’re trying to find any way to save their children from going to this war.”
Combing wreckage
In Ukraine’s southern port of Odesa, missiles struck tourist sites, destroying five buildings and injuring two, its city council said. Ukrainian media reported an Odesa shopping centre was ablaze after a strike. There was no immediate confirmation.
Serhiy Haidai, governor of Ukraine’s frontline Luhansk province, said rescuers were trying to begin sifting through the site of a school in the town of Bilohorivka after a Russian attack believed to have killed 60 people there on Sunday.
Ukrainian forces were holding firm at the towns of Rubizhne and Popasna, major targets of Russia’s advance, he said.
A woman walks into a metro station in downtown Kyiv, as Russia celebrates Victory Day, which marks the 77th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on 9th May. PICTURE: Reuters/Carlos Barria
Ukraine’s defence ministry said Russian forces backed by tanks and artillery were conducting “storming operations” at Mariupol’s Azovstal plant, where hundreds of Ukrainian defenders have held out through months of siege. Civilians sheltering there were evacuated in recent days.
The Russians were trying to blow up a bridge used for evacuations, to trap the last defenders inside, said Mariupol mayoral aide Petro Andryuschenko.
Just before the Red Square parade was broadcast, Moscow satellite television menus were briefly altered to show viewers messages condemning the Ukraine war.
“The TV and the authorities are lying. No to war,” the messages said.
– Additional reporting by OLEKSANDR KOZHUKHAR in Lviv and Reuters bureaux.
