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Agence France-Presse

Russia and Ukraine launched major attacks on each other Friday, with a two-day unilateral ceasefire that Moscow had declared around its World War II commemorations appearing to be in tatters.
Ukraine never said it would abide by Moscow’s call to halt strikes and lambasted Russian leader Vladimir Putin for only wanting to pause fighting so he could stage a grand parade on Red Square on Saturday.
Kyiv said Moscow ignored a Ukrainian call to halt fighting earlier this week – a counterproposal for a short-term ceasefire that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky cast as a test of whether the Kremlin was serious about providing a brief respite in the four-year war.
Russia has threatened a massive strike on the heart of Kyiv if Ukraine disrupts the Victory Day parade on Saturday, repeatedly urging foreign diplomats to evacuate the Ukrainian capital ahead of time.
“On the Russian side, there was not even a token attempt to cease fire on the front,” Zelensky said.
“As we did over the past 24 hours, Ukraine will respond in kind today as well,” Zelensky wrote on X.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired 67 drones overnight – the lowest number in almost a month.
Zelensky also reported hundreds of Russian attacks on the front line with short-range drones and attempted assaults.
Russia’s defence ministry said it had downed 264 Ukrainian drones overnight and that its troops were “responding symmetrically”.
Zelensky hailed a Ukrainian strike on an oil depot in the Yaroslavl region, around 200km (about 125 miles) northeast of Moscow.
Some 13 airports in southern Russia were closed on Friday morning due to the threat of a Ukrainian attack, aviation authorities in Russia said.
Ukraine had blasted Russia’s temporary truce as a propaganda measure to protect the victory parade on May 9 – one of the most important patriotic events for Putin.

Hours before Russia’s ceasefire began, Zelensky warned Moscow’s allies against attending the parade.
“We have also received messages from some states close to Russia, saying that their representatives plan to be in Moscow … We do not recommend it,” Zelensky said.
“They want from Ukraine a permit to hold their parade so that they can go out onto the square safely for one hour once a year, and then go on killing,” the Ukrainian leader added.
Russia has twice this week vowed a huge strike on Kyiv if the Red Square parade – where Putin will deliver a defiant address linking Soviet victory over Nazi Germany with his invasion of Ukraine – is attacked on Saturday.
“We remind the civilian population of Kyiv and staff at foreign diplomatic missions once again of the need to leave the city in good time,” Moscow’s defence ministry said in a statement Thursday evening.
Zelensky will stay in Kyiv over the weekend, a senior source close to the Ukrainian president said on condition of anonymity.
The EU, Britain and Germany were among the foreign missions in the Ukrainian capital that rejected and condemned the Russian threat.
Hundreds of thousands of soldiers from both sides and tens of thousands of civilians, most in Ukraine, have been killed since Putin ordered the invasion in February 2022.

Millions more have been forced from their homes in the east and south of Ukraine, which has been devastated by the fighting.
Putin has made memory of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany a central narrative of his 25-year rule, staging massive parades in central Moscow on May 9 and invoking it to justify his invasion of Ukraine.
But the Kremlin is on edge due to a spate of Ukrainian long-range attacks on energy facilities in recent weeks.
Military hardware will be omitted from the parade for the first time in almost two decades and only a handful of low-key foreign guests will attend.
Moscow has also been intermittently shutting off mobile internet ahead of the celebrations.
Talks on ending what has spiralled into Europe’s worst conflict since World War II have shown little progress and have been sidelined by the Iran conflict.
Moscow is demanding that Ukraine withdraw from four regions it claims as its own – terms seen as unacceptable to Kyiv.


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Ukraine war

Russia and Ukraine trade attacks ahead of Moscow war parade

Russian service members rehearsing for Saturday’s parade. Photo: Reuters

Security has been boosted in Moscow for Saturday’s parade. Photo: Reuters

A satellite image shows smoke rising from an oil pumping station in Perm, Russia, following a Ukrainian drone attack on Thursday. Photo: Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo: Sputnik via AP

Russia urges foreigners to leave Ukraine capital over Victory Day threat

Russian service members in Moscow ahead of Saturday's parade. Photo: Reuters

The engine of a Russian drone in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Photo: Reuters

Putin and Zelensky announce rival ceasefires ahead of Russia’s Victory Day

Security personnel armed with a machine gun patrol in central Moscow. Photo: Reuters

Russian troops prepare for Saturday’s military parade. Photo: Reuters

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky attending a European Political Community summit in Armenia on Monday. Photo: AFP

The damaged facade of a Moscow high-rise building following a drone attack. Photo: Reuters

Russia’s inching advance in Ukraine approaches eastern fortress belt

A service member of the 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces walks on a road near destroyed cars, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the frontline town of Kostiantynivka in Donetsk region, Ukraine, on February 19. Photo: Reuters

Russia to hold equipment-free Red Square parade as Ukraine war grinds on

Russian servicemen at last year’s Victory Day military parade. Photo: EPA

Russian tanks at last year’s parade. Photo: EPA

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Russia has threatened a massive strike on the heart of Kyiv if Ukraine disrupts the Victory Day parade on Saturday


Russia has threatened a massive strike on the heart of Kyiv if Ukraine disrupts the Victory Day parade on Saturday.


Russia and Ukraine trade attacks ahead of Moscow war parade

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Russia has threatened a massive strike on the heart of Kyiv if Ukraine disrupts the Victory Day parade on Saturday

Russia has threatened a massive strike on the heart of Kyiv if Ukraine disrupts the Victory Day parade on Saturday