UKRaine Downs Dozens of Drones Over Kyiv in RUssian Air Assault; Some Western Officials Asked UKR Not to Liberate Crimea; Wagner Mercenary Group a ‘shadow of what it once was’; Belarusian Battalion Recaptures Trenches From RUs on Donbas ‘road of life’, LIVE UPDATES and MORE

By admin On May 10, 2023

WSJ: Ukraine Downs Dozens of Drones Over Kyiv in Russian Air Assault:

Ukraine said Monday that it shot down more than two dozen drones above Kyiv overnight, as Russia intensifies strikes that seek to degrade its rival’s air defenses ahead of an expected offensive by Kyiv.

The strikes come after a recent spate of attacks on Russian soil culminating in a drone attack on the Kremlin last week that Moscow blamed on Kyiv. Ukraine has denied involvement.

“The enemy is increasing the density of air attacks on Kyiv,” said the head of the city’s military administration, Serhiy Popko. Falling debris wounded six people and damaged vehicles and buildings, Mr. Popko said, adding it was the fourth attack on the capital this month. The drones were Iranian-made, he said.

Inspecting a damaged high-rise building in the Sviatoshyn district, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 36 drones had been shot down, describing it as one of the biggest such attacks of the war.

Ukraine’s air force said it downed 35 drones—all launched from Russia’s southern Bryansk region. The reason for the discrepancy between the number of downed drones reported by the Kyiv mayor and the figure given by the air force wasn’t clear.

Moscow threatened retaliation after two drones crashed into the Kremlin on Wednesday, in an embarrassment for Russian President Vladimir Putin as the country prepared to mark the Soviet army’s victory over Nazi Germany.

Ukraine, which was part of the Soviet Union at that time, has in the past marked the occasion on May 9 along with Russia, but the war has prompted Kyiv to take a fresh look at its history. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday submitted a bill to Parliament to change Victory Day to May 8, in the latest move to underline the country’s difference to Russia. Both countries have drawn parallels between their role in the defeat of Nazi Germany and the war that has been raging since Mr. Putin invaded Ukraine more than one year ago.

“Remembering the heroism of millions of Ukrainians in that war against Nazism, we see the same heroism in the actions of our soldiers now,” Mr. Zelensky said on Monday. “We will not allow the joint victory of the nations of the anti-Hitler coalition to be appropriated. We destroyed evil together! In the same way as we are now opposing a similar evil together.” —>READ MORE HERE

Some Western officials asked Ukraine not to liberate Crimea, an official says

Some Western officials have asked Ukraine not to liberate Russian-occupied Crimea over fears that Moscow would pull the nuclear lever, Permanent Representative of the Ukrainian President in Crimea Tamila Tasheva told Polish Press Agency on May 5.

Tasheva said in an interview that some Western officials, not states, “claim that the recapture of Crimea could lead to a nuclear war.” They agree that Ukraine can liberate Crimea but warned that “the potential consequences will be huge, both for the inhabitants of the peninsula and for Ukraine,” she added.

Some of them claimed that Crimea was never Ukrainian, Tasheva said, which echoes a Russian narrative that Moscow has shared to try to justify its illegal occupation of the peninsula. Crimea has never been Russia either, Tasheva stressed, adding that historically Crimea belongs to Crimean Tatars, the indigenous Muslim population of Crimea who have lived in the peninsula for centuries.

Regardless of the warning from some unnamed officials, Tasheva said, “Ukraine will probably retake Crimea in the near future.” She said she doesn’t believe Russia would turn to nuclear weapons “because (Russian President Vladimir) Putin knows that if he does, there will be no turning back.”