𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Russia has cancelled a Victory Day parade in occupied Crimea, Russian state-controlled media reported yesterday.

The parade in the port city of Sevastopol, which is held on 9 May to commemorate the Soviet Victory in the Second World War, will not take place due to safety risks, Sevastopol governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said.

It comes after Volodymyr Zelensky said he cannot guarantee the safety of foreign officials who attend Russia’s Victory Day parade in Moscow, warning that Russia could orchestrate provocations and attempt to blame Ukraine.

Moscow is responsible for safety on Russian territory, he added.

The cancellation in Crimea comes after the Ukrainian military claimed to have downed two Russian fighter jets using sea drones near the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk on Friday – believed to be the first strikes of their kind.

Sevastopol is a major naval base in the Black Sea which has been under Russian occupation since its illegal annexation of the peninsula in 2014.

Officials in Greece have rejected reports that it is being lined up by the Trump administration to send Ukraine a Patriot air defence system.

A report by the New York Times cited four current and former US officials as saying that a Patriot missile system from Germany or Greece is likely to be sent to Ukraine, with logistics still being discussed.

However, a Greek official denied that Patriot systems will be sent from there while discussions are still being held on a package of new aid ahead of the Nato summit in late June.

“There is no question of supplying Ukraine with Patriot systems from Greece,” a government official in Athens told Reuters.

The Times report said one Patriot system was being refurbished and sent to Ukraine from Israel.

The war-hit nation has asked its allies in Europe to provide it with more Patriot systems to down incoming Russian missiles.

The attack by Ukrainian forces on the Western edge of Kursk is dramatic but not a surprise, The Independent’s World Affairs Editor Sam Kiley writes.

Ukraine has maintained a foot hole in the salient it captured last August but lost most of earlier this year to prevent Russian incursions into its territory.

It is also conducted commando raids and semi-covert operations further east around the Russian city of Belgorod amid claims from President Volodymyr Zelensky that Russia was building up its own forces on his northern border for a potential invasion.

The latest Ukrainian attacks on Kursk draw focus and energy away from a potential Russian attack and serve political purpose in reminding the Russian population that there is a price to pay at home for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

But there are only Russian sources reporting the Ukrainian attack on Kursk and there has been no official confirmation from Kyiv on these reported operations.

In their preliminary reports, Russian military bloggers said Ukrainian forces firing missiles had smashed through the border, crossing minefields with special vehicles.

“The enemy blew up bridges with rockets at night and launched an attack with armoured groups in the morning,” Russian war blogger “RVvoenkor” said on Telegram.

“The mine clearance vehicles began to make passages in the minefields, followed by armoured vehicles with troops. There is a heavy battle going on at the border,” they said.

Popular Russian military blog Rybar said Ukrainian units were trying to advance near two settlements in Kursk region over the border — Tyotkino and Glushkovo.

The head of Glushkovo district, Pavel Zolotaryov, wrote on Telegram that residents of several localities were being evacuated to safer areas.

Ukraine first made a surprise incursion into Kursk in August 2024, hoping to shift the momentum in Russia’s full-scale invasion and draw Russian forces away from other sectors of the front in eastern Ukraine.

Last month Russian generals and president Vladimir Putin claimed that those forces had been fully expelled from Russian territory.

But Kyiv has not acknowledged that its troops were forced out.

President Volodymyr Zelensky says his military continued to operate in Kursk and in the adjacent Russian region of Belgorod.

Dismissing Vladimir Putin’s offer of a brief ceasefire in May as yet “another attempt at manipulation” is an understatement. The Russian president is – according to the former head of MI6 – intent on taking much more than just Ukraine.

Far from being worried by recent mini-threats from Donald Trump to increase sanctions or stung by the US president’s irritation at Russia’s stalling over a ceasefire, Putin is cupping his ears in a pantomime of attention and carrying on doing as he pleases.

Such behaviour chimes with the uncharacteristically stark message from ex-spy chief Sir Alex Younger who, after a lifetime in the shadows of espionage, has a simple message: “If you don’t stand up to him, he comes back for more – how many more times do we need to be told this?”

Putin’s latest play is a three-day ceasefire from 8 May to mark the Russian anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany. His last Easter ceasefire was ignored by his own troops.

Ukrainian forces attacked a power substation in Russia’s western Kursk region, the regional governor said early this morning after Russian war bloggers reported a new Ukrainian land-based incursion into the area backed by armoured vehicles.

Officials on both sides of the border reported deaths from military activity and ordered evacuations of several settlements.

Kursk governor Alexander Khinshtein said Ukrainian forces had struck the substation in the town of Rylsk, about 50km (30 miles) from the border, injuring two teenagers. Two transformers were damaged and power cut to the area.

“Dear residents, the enemy, in its agony, is continuing to launch strikes against our territory,” Khinshtein wrote, confirming Ukrainian presence in the Russian region.

Last month, Russia’s top general said that Ukrainian troops had been ejected from Kursk, ending the biggest incursion into Russian territory since the Second World War, and that Russia was carving out a buffer zone in the Ukrainian region of Sumy.

Ukraine made a surprise incursion into Kursk in August 2024, hoping to shift the momentum in Russia’s full-scale invasion and draw Russian forces away from other sectors of the front in eastern Ukraine.

All four airports serving Moscow have been shut down and all flights have been halted, said Russia’s aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia this morning.

Airports in a number of regional cities were also closed, it said.

Just hours earlier, Russia’s capital came under a massive drone attack, officials reported.

Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that at least 19 Ukrainian drones were destroyed on their approach to Moscow “from different directions”.

Russia only reports the number of drones it destroys, and not those that hit their targets.

Russian air defence units destroyed a swarm of Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow for the second night in a row, prompting the closure of the capital’s airports, Russian officials said early this morning.

Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that at least 19 Ukrainian drones were destroyed on their approach to Moscow “from different directions”.

Russia only reports the number of drones it destroys, and not those that hit their targets.

A day earlier Ukraine hit Moscow with four drones, with Russian president Vladimir Putin set to host a Victory Day parade in the city at the end of this week to mark the 80th anniversary of victory in the Second World War.

At least three social media sites on Telegram with links to Russian security services – Baza, Mash and Shot – said one drone struck an apartment building near a major road in the south of the capital, smashing windows.

There were no reports of casualties.

The mayor said there was “no destruction or casualties” at any of the sites where fragments had fallen.”

Specialists from the emergency services are working at the sites where the incidents occurred,” he said.

He referred to debris falling on one of the key highways leading into the city, but made no mention of a dwelling being hit.