New developments:
Fears about the safety of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant is growing after the Moscow-installed governor of the Ukrainian region where it is located ordered civilian evacuations.
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prighozin said his forces will remain in the besieged Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. He indicated his soldiers will continue the assault on the city after the Russian military promised more arms and ammunition.
Russian nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin sent a defiant message to those who attempted to assassinate him. Prilepin is recovering from extensive injuries after a car bomb exploded killing his driver.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that Russian forces in Ukraine will be defeated like Nazi Germany was defeated in World War II.
“We fought then and we fight now so that no one ever again enslaves other nations and destroys other countries,” Zelenskyy said in a video message. “And all those old evils that modern Russia is bringing back will be defeated just as Nazism was defeated.”
Zelenskyy said Russia’s goal in Ukraine is “enslavement or destruction,” and he compared the support Ukraine has received from other nations to the allied effort to defeat Germany in 1945.
“This enemy once again put aggression and annexation, occupation and deportation, mass murder, and torture, bombing cities and burning villages up against our ideals,” Zelenskyy said. “Our victory will be the answer to all this. The victory of Ukraine and the free world, liberation of our lands, the return of our people, protecting our values and, inevitably, justice.”
The Ukrainian leader’s address also included the announcement of a decree to have the remembrance of the victory of Germany take place on May 8, as Western allies do. That in is contrast to Russia, which holds its celebration on May 9.
Zelenskyy said that Ukraine will instead use May 9 to honor Europe’s support for Ukraine in the years since Russia annexed Crimea and since Russian forces launched their full-scale invasion last year.
“This will be the Day of Europe, which helps us fight in all directions: on the battlefield with weapons and on the diplomatic front – with determination, against missile terror and the winter blackout, in the economy and on the legal front,” Zelenskyy said. “This will be the Day of Europe – our ally. Which gives shelter to Ukrainian women and children. Which does not encroach on our sovereignty and does not call into question our right to choose our own national path.”
Russian attacks
Russian forces have increased attacks in recent days ahead of its Tuesday Victory Day parade, including what Ukrainian officials said was an assault by drones and cruise missiles early Monday on the capital, Kyiv.
First Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzhaparova tweeted that Ukrainian forces shot down 35 Iranian-made Shahed drones, but that debris had hit apartment buildings in Kyiv and injured five people.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the messaging app Telegram that three people were wounded in blasts in Kyiv’s Solomyanskyi district and two in the Sviatoshyn district, both west of the capital’s center.
Klitschko also said drone wreckage had fallen on a two-story building in the Sviatoshyn region.
In the Black Sea city of Odesa, Dzhaparova said Russian missiles hit a food warehouse and a recreation area.
Nuclear plant concerns
Fears about the safety of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in east Ukraine grew Sunday after Russian officials ordered the evacuation of civilians from 18 settlements around the nuclear power plant.
The plant is near the front line of battles between Russian and Ukrainian forces. Russia fired more than 30 shells at Nikopol, a Ukrainian-held town neighboring the plant, killing a 72-year-old woman and injuring three others Sunday, according to Ukrainian authorities.
Ukraine has also mounted attacks in the vicinity of the plant, according to The Associated Press.
The head of the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency said in a statement Saturday the situation near the plant “is becoming increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous.”
“I’m extremely concerned about the very real nuclear safety and security risks facing the plant,” International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said. “We must act now to prevent the threat of a severe nuclear accident and its associated consequences for the population and the environment.”
Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
…