🔴 Live: Russia will be defeated ‘as Nazism was’, says Zelensky ahead of Victory Day holiday

3:36pm: Moldova’s breakaway region calls for more Russian peacekeepers

Moldova’s unrecognised breakaway region of Transdniestria said on Monday it wanted Moscow to bulk up its small contingent of peacekeepers because of what it called growing security risks, Russia’s RIA news agency reported.

Though Moldova does not allow Russia to deploy new troops in Transdniestria, Russia has had hundreds of peacekeepers in the region since a bloody war between pro-Russian separatists and Moldovan government forces after the 1991 Soviet break-up.

“As long as Russia’s peacekeeping mission continues, Moldova is constrained in any military plans and preparations against Trandsniestria,” Leonid Manakov, the region’s envoy to Moscow, was cited as saying by RIA.

2:17pm: Russian shelling wounds eight in Kherson

Russian artillery shelling wounded eight people, including a nine-year-old boy, in two villages in Ukraine’s southern region of Kherson on Monday, regional officials said.

Six civilians were wounded in the village of Stanislav on the right bank of the Dnipro estuary, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said. Two others were hurt in Antonivka on Kherson’s outskirts, said military administration chief Roman Mrochko.

2:13pm: Russia effectively halts Black Sea grain deal, Kyiv says

Russia has effectively stopped the Black Sea grain deal by refusing to register incoming vessels, Ukraine’s reconstruction ministry said on Monday.

“The Russian Federation once again effectively stopped the ‘Grain Initiative’ by refusing to register incoming vessels and carry out their inspections. This approach contradicts the terms of the current agreement,” the ministry said in a statement.

1:20pm: EU’s von der Leyen to visit Kyiv to celebrate Europe Day

The European Union’s Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is traveling to Kyiv on Tuesday to mark Europe Day together with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The 27-nation bloc traditionally marks its “peace and unity” on May 9. On Monday, Zelensky announced his country would equally celebrate the day “together with all of free Europe.” 

Von der Leyen has already visited Kyiv on several occasions since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine 14 months ago. She has been a major driver in providing support for the embattled nation and in setting sanctions targeting the Kremlin. 

1:18pm: EU proposes new round of Russia sanctions over Ukraine

Brussels has proposed to EU member states an 11th round of sanctions over Russia’s war on Ukraine aimed at cutting down on evasion, a spokesman said Monday. 

“This package will be focusing on the implementation of sanctions, their effectiveness and how we avoid the evasion of sanctions,” European Commission spokesman Eric Mamer said. 

12:11pm: China’s foreign minister to visit Europe this week, hopes to act as Ukraine mediator

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang will visit Europe this week, Beijing said Monday, as China pushes to act as a mediator in the Ukraine conflict.

Qin will hold meetings with counterparts from Germany, France and Norway from Monday to Friday, foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said, without giving further details of his itinerary.

“At the invitation of German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna and Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt, state councillor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang will visit Germany, France and Norway from 8 to 12 May,” Wang said.

12:09pm: Russian drone attacks kill at least four in Kyiv, injure five

Ukraine’s air defences shot down 35 Iranian-made drones over Kyiv in Russia’s latest nighttime assault, as attacks across Ukraine by the Kremlin’s forces killed four civilians, officials said Monday as Moscow enforced tight security on the eve of traditional Red Square commemorations marking the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.

Five people in the capital were injured by falling drone debris, according to Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration. Air raid alarms sounded for more than three hours during the night.

Drone wreckage struck a two-story apartment building in Kyiv’s western Svyatoshynskyi district, while other debris struck a car parked nearby, setting it on fire, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a Telegram post.

11:09am: Ukraine issues air alert for entire country

Air raid sirens wailed across the whole of Ukraine on Monday just hours after Russia conducted massive overnight drone and missile strikes on the country.

Ukrainian military bloggers said the air alerts may have been triggered by a Russian warplane armed with Moscow’s Kinzhal hypersonic weapons taking off. FRANCE 24 was unable to independently verify that assertion.

10:50am: Wagner says Russia promises enough ammo to stay in Bakhmut

On Saturday, the head of the Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin asked Moscow to let him hand over his positions to Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, who had said that his forces were “ready to move” toward Bakhmut.

Prigozhin has for months accused Russia’s conventional army of refusing to deliver ammunition to his men. Nevertheless, the emotive language used in Friday’s videos and the ferocity of his attack on the leaders of Russia’s campaign in Ukraine were unprecedented.

His ultimatum appears to have worked. On Sunday, Prigozhin appeared to abandon plans to withdraw from Bakhmut, saying that Wagner had been promised more arms and suggesting it would keep up the assault on what Russia sees as a stepping stone in the Donbas region. Watch FRANCE 24’s video report here: 

9:00am: Zelensky says Russia will be defeated ‘as Nazism was’

President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday vowed that Russian forces would be defeated in Ukraine as Nazi Germany was beaten in World War II, commemorating Victory in Europe Day.

“All the old evil that modern Russia is bringing back will be defeated just as Nazism was defeated,” Zelensky said in a video statement, adding: “Just as we destroyed evil together then, we are destroying a similar evil together now.”

His address came on the anniversary of Nazi Germany’s surrender to allied forces on May 8, 1945 and one day ahead of Victory Day in Moscow, celebrating the Soviet Union’s victory in World War II.

8:03am: Russia steps up strikes on Ukraine ahead of May 9 Victory Day holiday

Russia launched a wave of drone, missile and air strikes on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, officials said on Monday, as Moscow stepped up attacks while preparing for its cherished Victory Day holiday celebrating the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.

As many as 16 missile strikes had targeted the cities of Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odesa regions, in addition to 61 airstrikes and 52 rocket salvos on Ukrainian positions and populated areas, the General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said in its morning update on the fighting.

The fresh attacks come as Moscow prepares for Tuesday’s Victory Day parade, a key event for President Vladimir Putin, who has evoked the spirit of the Soviet triumph over Nazi Germany, having accused Ukraine of being in the grip of a new kind of fascism. FRANCE 24’s correspondent in Ukraine Gulliver Cragg says “the fear is that the Russians may have finally received the order to take back Bakhmut in time for the 9th of May tomorrow”.

03:15

1:43am: At least five wounded due to Russian strikes on Kyiv, city officials say

At least five people were wounded due to Russian strikes on Kyiv, city officials said early on Monday, as Moscow launched another large-scale attack on Ukraine.

Three people were injured in blasts in Kyiv’s Solomyanskyi district and two others were injured when drone wreckage fell onto the Sviatoshyn district, both west of the capital’s centre, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on his Telegram messaging channel.

Klitschko said drone wreckage fell on a two-storey building in the Sviatoshyn region, adding that blasts continued in Kyiv.

The city’s military administration said there was destruction as a result of the attacks.

12:45am: More than 1,600 evacuated from areas near Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

Some 1,679 people, including 660 children, have been evacuated from areas near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, a Moscow-installed official in the Russia-controlled parts of the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine said late on Sunday.

The head of the UN’s nuclear power watchdog warned on Saturday that the situation around the plant has become “potentially dangerous” as Moscow-installed officials began evacuating people from nearby areas.

Ukraine is expected to soon begin a much-anticipated counteroffensive to retake Russian-held territory, including in the Zaporizhzhia region.

• Key developments from Sunday, May 7:

The ongoing evacuation of a town close to the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia power plant in Ukraine has prompted the UN nuclear watchdog to warn of an increasingly unpredictable situation.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Wagner mercenary group appeared to abandon plans to withdraw from Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, saying they had been promised more arms by Moscow.

Read yesterday’s live blog to see how the day’s events unfolded