Russian President Putinb finally shows up in public…
He goes into it about complaining about how the Ukraine should be his and that the West is preventing his grabing back territiory that left with the desolving of the Soviet Union…..
Russian continues to rely of rocket and artillery fire against the Ukraine , not doing troop advances on the ground anymore…..
The Russians are squeezing shut Ukraine grain exports……
Russia’s Victory day aain’t much……
Biden adds more than a billion dollars in the latest aid package …..
The Brits are sending longer range missiles that could reach deeper into Russia….
Russia has been struggling on the battlefield; a long-heralded Ukrainian counteroffensive looms; and Ukraine has stepped up attacks in Russian-occupied territory and has been accused of striking within Russia. Many Victory Day events across the country were canceled or scaled back because of security concerns, and the annual military parade in Moscow’s Red Square — normally a display of the size and power of the Kremlin’s arsenal — proceeded without a single modern tank or its signature flyover.
Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, offered a counterpoint to the Russian events, calling for the expansion of the European Union and stressing the importance of its unity in a speech marking Europe Day, the anniversary of a key moment in 1950 toward European unification. “Europe’s future is in our hands,” he told E.U. lawmakers in Strasbourg, France. That future, he said, “certainly does not belong to the revisionists who dream of national glory or crave imperial power” — a clear reference to Russia’s leadership.
Here’s what else to know:
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Mr. Putin kept to his usual talking points during his 10-minute speech, repeating grievances against Kyiv and its Western allies and accusing them of “pursuing the dissolution and the destruction of our country.” But his forceful tone and explicit linking of the war in Ukraine to the struggle against Nazi Germany conveyed gravity during what is a deeply emotive event for many Russians.
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Russia continues to lean on its aerial weaponry against Ukraine. Early in the day, a wave of cruise missiles targeted Kyiv in the fifth large-scale Russian aerial attack against the capital city this month. Loud explosions rang out as air defenses intercepted the missiles. No casualties or damage were immediately reported.
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Other European leaders also made shows of support for Ukraine. Shortly after the last Russian missile was destroyed above Kyiv, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, arrived there. “Good to be back in Kyiv,” she wrote on Twitter. “Where the values we hold dear are defended every day.”
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Ukraine’s grain exports have fallen sharply weeks before a key Black Sea shipping agreement with Russia is scheduled to expire, United Nations data released on Tuesday showed. Turkey said it would host talks with Ukrainian, Russian and U.N. representatives this week as negotiators try to extend an agreement that the United Nations says is important for the global food supply…..
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The Biden administration on Tuesday announced a $1.2 billion aid package aimed at bolstering Ukraine’s air defenses and sustaining its ammunition supply.
Here’s the latest on the war and its impact across the globe.
- In a brief speech under tight security at a scaled-down parade for Victory Day, a holiday commemorating the Soviet Union’s role in the Allied defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, Putin claimed that “real war” is being waged against Russia and accused Western nations of stoking conflict and treating Ukraine as a “bargaining chip.” The traditional military flyover was canceled, as were celebrations in at least 20 cities due to security concerns, after what Moscow alleges was a drone attack on the Kremlin last week.
- Military experts noted that the 45-minute parade featured about 50 vehicles, a drastic decrease from the 2021 event that showcased 131 pieces, and there was only one tank — a World War II-era T-34. The traditional flyover of military aircraft was canceled.
- Putin attended the commemoration in Red Square with a small group of foreign leaders, mostly from former Soviet states such as Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Armenia and Kazakhstan. Wearing a black coat with a St. George ribbon pinned to his chest, he greeted World War II veterans and said, “We are proud of the participants of the ‘special military operation,’” referring to the war in Ukraine. “The future of our statehood and our people depends on you.”
- Protesters in Warsaw blocked Russian diplomats from laying flowers at the Soviet Military Center to commemorate soldiers killed in World War II. The Russian Foreign Ministry denounced the incident in a Tuesday statement, calling it “another manifestation of unfriendly attitude from the Polish side” and an affront to those killed.
- “Victory Day is supposed to be about peace and unity in Europe,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a news briefing Tuesday. “It’s supposed to be about the end of war and bloodshed and suffering. Instead, Mr. Putin promised only more violence and spewed only more lies about a war he falsely claims has been unleashed against Russia. Make no mistake, Russia is the aggressor here.”
- The newly announced U.S. aid package includes 155 mm artillery rounds, commercial satellite imagery services and equipment to integrate Western air defense launchers with Ukraine’s systems, the Department of Defense said in a news release. The aid is being provided under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, meaning it will be spent over a longer timeline. The latest package brings the U.S.’s financial commitment to Ukraine to more than $37.6 billion since the Russian invasion began in February 2022.
- European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is in Kyiv on Tuesday, to join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in celebrating Europe Day on May 9, a holiday honoring “peace and unity” on the continent. She also announced further economic sanction proposals on Russian entities. “We continue to do everything in our power to erode Putin’s war machine and his revenues,” she said at a news conference alongside Zelensky.
- In his own Europe Day remarks, Zelensky drew a parallel between the battle against Nazism and his country’s fight against the Russian invasion. “The more people know the honest history, the more they see the commonalities between the brutal aggressions of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries,” he said in a Tuesday address. “It is only a matter of time before the current aggressor loses,” he added, “like the aggressor who lost 78 years ago, before Russian revanchism is crushed by the bravery of our warriors and the joint power of the free world.”
- Russia is preparing to evacuate more than 3,000 staff members from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant,the largest facility of its kind in Europe, where experts have warned that fighting could lead to a disastrous leak of nuclear material, according to Ukraine’s nuclear operator. Occupying Russian authorities have also evacuated nearly 1,700 civilians from communities near the facility ahead of a potential Ukrainian offensive in the region, according to a Moscow-installed official.
- “We need to continue to support [Ukraine] irrespective of whether this forthcoming offensive generates huge gains on the battlefield,” British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said during a joint news conference Tuesday with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington. “[Until] this conflict is resolved and resolved properly, it is not over,” he said. Blinken, for his part, reiterated that the U.S. intended to provide indefinite backing to Ukraine.
- Explosions rattled Kyiv at dawn Tuesday as Russia made its fifth attack on the Ukrainian capital in nine days. The city’s military administration posted on Telegramthat several air targets were destroyed and said there were no reported casualties. The leader of Kyiv’s military administration, Serhiy Popko, attributed the attack to Russia’s Victory Day celebrations, writing on Telegram that Russia has given itself a “sacred day” on which to “try to kill as many civilians as possible.”
- Arman Soldin, a journalist for Agence France-Presse, was killed near Bakhmut, Ukraine, on Tuesday, the news agency said in a statement posted to Twitter.
- Britain appears poised to send Kyiv longer-range missiles that could reach deeper into Russian-held territory, weapons that the United States has avoided providing. The British Defense Ministry asked an alliance of Northern European countries for “expressions of interest” in providing Ukraine strike capabilities with a range of up to 300 kilometers, or about 186 miles. A final decision has not yet been made…..