Russia warns Kyiv diplomats to evacuate in case of a strike

Ahead of Moscow’s World War II Victory Day celebrations, Russia has warned foreign diplomats in Kyiv that the Ukrainian capital could come under attack if Ukraine disrupts this weekend’s events, underscoring how the war is spilling into one of the Kremlin’s most symbolic dates.

Russian officials gave no further detail about the warning, and there was no immediate response from Ukraine.

The threat came as both countries exchanged fresh strikes, with officials reporting 13 people wounded in the Russian border city of Bryansk and one injured in Ukraine’s Dnipro.

Every year on 9 May, Russia stages a major Victory Day military parade through Red Square to commemorate the Soviet role in defeating Nazi Germany in World War II.

In a note sent to foreign diplomatic missions and international organisations, Moscow said it would carry out a “retaliatory strike” on Kyiv, “including against decision-making centres”, if Ukraine interfered with the commemorations on Saturday.

Russian National Guard officers walk across Red Square decorated for the Victory Day military parade

The message urged embassies and other international missions to “ensure the timely evacuation of personnel from diplomatic and other missions, as well as citizens, from the city of Kyiv”.

Ukraine had not publicly reacted immediately.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobianin said Russian air defences had destroyed at least five drones “flying toward Moscow”.

In Dnipro, one person was wounded in a Russian strike, according to Oleksandr Ganzha, head of the regional administration.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has sharply criticised Russia’s demand for a ceasefire on 9 May, a politically charged holiday for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

On Monday, President Zelensky suggested the Kremlin was worried that Ukrainian drones might “buzz over Red Square”.

Ukraine, for its part, proposed a ceasefire beginning on 6 May, but Russia did not observe it.

“Today, virtually all day long, virtually every hour, we have been receiving reports of strikes from various regions,” the Ukrainian president said.

In his evening address, President Zelensky said Ukraine would “respond in kind” to Russian violations and would determine its next steps based on developments.

Ukrainian authorities said multiple attacks were recorded throughout yesterday, when Kyiv’s unilateral ceasefire was supposed to take effect.

Officials said at least four people were killed in Russian strikes, including two at a kindergarten in the northern Sumy region.

Russia says it destroyed 350 Ukrainian drones

Russia’s defence ministry said today that its forces had downed nearly 350 Ukrainian drones overnight.

Earlier this morning, a Russian strike injured one person in the central-eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro, regional administration head Oleksandr Ganzha said.

Combat also continued unabated along the front line.

A Ukrainian officer on the eastern front, speaking anonymously, told AFP: “The enemy continued to carry out infantry raids and attempts to storm our positions.”

Ukrainian drone attacks have created a sense of unease in Russia ahead of the 9 May parade

Because Russia “did not comply” with the ceasefire proposed by Ukraine, “our unit responded in kind and countered all provocations”, he said.

Another frontline commander said: “The intensity of combat operations remains at the same level.”

His unit, he added, was answering in the same spirit: “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth!”

The Kremlin made no comment on Ukraine’s ceasefire proposal and instead only called on Kyiv to suspend attacks for 9 May.

Strikes by both sides have intensified in recent weeks, as a war now stretching beyond four years has killed hundreds of thousands of soldiers and tens of thousands of civilians.

In Bryansk, a Russian border city, Ukraine struck residential buildings this morning, wounding 13 people, according to regional governor Aleksandr Bogomaz.

On Tuesday, Ukraine also struck far inside Russian territory, killing two people in Cheboksary, a Volga city hundreds of miles from the Ukrainian border.

Those attacks have deepened unease in Russia in the run-up to the 9 May parade.

Russian authorities have said military hardware will be removed from the procession for the first time in almost 20 years.

They have also imposed intermittent city-wide internet shutdowns that will continue until Saturday.

Efforts to end what has become Europe’s worst conflict since World War II have made little headway and have been pushed to the sidelines by the Iran conflict.

Russia is insisting that Ukraine withdraw from four regions Moscow claims as its own, conditions that Ukraine regards as unacceptable.

Russian drones crash in Latvia

Several Russian drones entered Latvian airspace overnight, with two crashing and another sparking a brief fire at an oil depot, the army said on Thursday.

“Several unmanned aerial vehicles entered Latvian airspace” the army of the EU and NATO member bordering Russia said in a statement, adding that two of them “crashed.”

Latvian national police said one drone came down at an oil storage facility in Rezekne, in the east of the country. The impact triggered a fire, but firefighters quickly contained it.

“As long as Russian aggression against Ukraine continues, it is possible that such incidents will be repeated, when a foreign unmanned aircraft enters Latvian airspace or approaches it,” the army said.

Several drones from Russia and Ukraine have crashed in the three Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.