Ukraine eyes Moscow with fear as Russia celebrates Victory Day


A local resident looks at a shell crater near a block of flats, which was destroyed during Russian shelling in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine.ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO/Reuters

For decades, May 9 was a day of solidarity and shared triumph for Russia, Ukraine, and the other countries that once made up the Soviet Union. But this year, Ukrainians will see how Moscow celebrates Victory Day with fear.

With Russia’s 10-week invasion of Ukraine largely thwarted by poor planning and fierce resistance, there are concerns that Russian President Vladimir Putin will use his annual address in Moscow’s Red Square, where he will address soldiers and veterans gathered to commemorate the anniversary. of the defeat of Nazi Germany – to herald some kind of new escalation of the conflict in Ukraine.

The annual military parade in Red Square often includes intercontinental ballistic missiles, a display of nuclear power that will be particularly threatening at a time when tensions between Russia and the West are at their highest since the Cuban missile crisis last year. 50 years.

Sergey Utkin, head of strategic assessment at the Moscow-based Primakov Institute of World Economy and International Relations, said he hoped the Kremlin would use May 9 to connect the $24 million World War II triumph over the Nazis. Soviet lives, with the current conflict. Moscow claims it is fighting “neo-Nazis” in Ukraine, even though far-right groups have little influence in the country and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky himself is Jewish.

While Utkin predicted that Putin would not make any major announcements that would overshadow a day that is sacred to many Russians, officials in Britain and the United States have said they believe Putin could use Victory Day to formally declare war on Russia. . Ukraine. The Kremlin has so far insisted that he is only conducting a “special military operation” against his neighbor. Ordering full mobilization could result in hundreds of thousands of Russians being called up for military service.

Russian service members drive a tank down a Moscow street during a rehearsal for the Victory Day military parade.EVGENIA NOVOZHENINA/Reuters

There are also widespread fears of a wave of missile strikes, or even the use of prohibited weapons of mass destruction, against targets in Ukraine on Monday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has dismissed such predictions as “nonsense”.

Both the general mobilization and the use of banned weapons would highlight how poorly the Russian military has fared to date. A war that many predicted Russia would win in a matter of days now looks set to drag on for months at least. Russia has already been forced to abandon an initial attempt to capture kyiv in order to concentrate its forces in eastern and southern Ukraine.

“Ukraine seems to be ready for whatever comes,” said Volodymyr Dubovyk, a professor of international relations at Odessa Mechnikov National University, which has been closed since the invasion began on February 24. martial law, it will be more difficult for us, of course. But most experts believe that they could not bring in reinforcements at all or bring them in quickly. Either way, the flow of weapons into Ukraine should continue. This seems to be a critical moment. The use of weapons of mass destruction on their part would be horrible, of course, if it comes to this.”

In addition to the parade in Moscow, there are signs that the Kremlin may be planning some kind of celebration for May 9 in the shattered Ukrainian city of Mariupol, which is largely under Russian control. Vladimir Solovyov, a prominent Russian state television anchor, and Sergei Kiriyenko, one of Putin’s top advisers, have visited Mariupol in recent days, and Ukrainian intelligence said last week that Russian troops were removing bodies and debris from the streets, possibly in preparation for a parade on May 9 in the city.

But even in Mariupol, where more than 20,000 people are believed to have been killed since the war began, Russia has been unable to fully meet its military objectives. A unit of Ukrainian fighters has been holed up in the city’s Azovstal steel factory for weeks, defying Russian attempts to declare even a limited victory on May 9.

A demonstrator holds a placard during an anti-war protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in Tbilisi, Georgia, a day before Russia marks Victory Day.Shakh Aivazov/The Associated Press

“The Russians are desperately trying to score some goals, any goals to celebrate this day, but they will not succeed,” Illia Samoilenko, a lieutenant with the Azov Battalion who still defends the plant, said at a news conference broadcast online from somewhere on Sunday. place. in the tunnels under the Azovstal plant.

Lt. Samoilenko criticized the Ukrainian government and military for not doing more to rescue the trapped defenders of the steel factory, which he said included hundreds of wounded fighters, but said his unit would fight on. “Nobody expected us to last this long, but against all odds and despite everything, we kept holding on, we kept holding on”.

Lieutenant Samoilenko questioned the Ukrainian government’s claim that all civilians had been evacuated from Azovstal, saying that even for him it was impossible to know how many people were still trapped in other parts of the factory.

On Sunday, Zelensky posted a video saying the world had failed to honor the “never again” vow made at the end of World War II.

“Darkness has returned to Ukraine decades after World War II. … The evil has returned,” Zelensky said, standing in front of a destroyed apartment block in the city of Borodyanka, outside kyiv, where hundreds of people were killed during a month of Russian occupation before the war. “In a different way, under different slogans, but with the same purpose.”

Our Morning Update and Evening Update newsletters are written by Globe editors and give you a concise summary of the day’s biggest headlines. sign up today.



Reference-www.theglobeandmail.com

Leave a Comment