The warning is clear. The Kremlin, the seat of the Russian presidency, said on Tuesday that the Russian army would “immediately” respond in the event of a Ukrainian attack during the truce of hostilities unilaterally ordered by President Vladimir Putin between May 8 and 10.
“If the kyiv diet (Editor’s note: the Ukrainian capital) Do not do the same and continue to try to hit our positions or our facilities, an adequate response will be immediately given, “said the presidency spokesperson Dmitri Peskov. In other words, Russia asks Ukraine, threatening it, to respect a truce that it has not accepted, while Russia itself refuses a long-term cease-fire proposed by Ukraine and supported by the United States.
On Saturday, Ukrainian President Voludymyr Zelensky denounced the “theatrical performance” of his Russian counterpart, acting the rejection of kyiv who still asks for his “unconditional” ceasefire. During the night of Monday to this Tuesday, Ukraine launched more than one hundred drones on Russian territory, targeting in particular Moscow, the capital, and temporarily disturbing the functioning of a dozen airports, the Russian authorities announced.
Moscow targeted
According to its mayor Sergei Sobianine, 19 devices having targeted Moscow were intercepted by the anti -aircraft defense. This night offensive raises fears of the multiplication of this type of attack in the coming days while Russia organizes festivities with several international leaders to celebrate the 80th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany, in place from 1933 to 1945 across the Rhine. Drone debris notably fell on a large avenue south of Moscow, without however making victims.
-Four capital airports (Chérémétiévo, Domodedovo, Vnoukovo and Joukovski) imposed provisional restrictions on their operation during the night, some closing their tracks, according to the Russian agency responsible for civil aviation, Rossaviatsia. The activities of several other Russian airports had to be suspended.
“Walking with them is sharing the responsibility for the blood of Ukrainian children”
kyiv also urged foreign troops on Tuesday not to participate in the major May 9 parade in Moscow so as not to “share the responsibility” of the “atrocities” of the Russian army in Ukraine. “The Russian army (…) continues to commit atrocities in Ukraine in Ukraine that Europe had not known since the Second World War”, between 1939 and 1945, launched Ukrainian diplomacy in a statement. “Walking with them is sharing the responsibility for the blood of Ukrainian children, civilians and military” and “not celebrate victory over Nazism”.
This more than tense situation did not prevent a new exchange of prisoners between the two countries at war. The Russian Defense Ministry announced that it had exchanged on Tuesday 205 Ukrainian prisoners of war for the same number of Russian detainees. “On May 6, 205 Russian soldiers were dismissed from the territory controlled by the kyiv regime and 205 prisoners of war from the Ukrainian armed forces were submitted in exchange,” said his services.
