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Russia ‘will not allow anyone to threaten us,’ Putin tells Victory Parade
Russian President Vladimir Putin watches a military parade on Victory Day, which marks the 77th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, in Red Square in central Moscow, Russia May 9, 2022.
Mikhail Metzel | Sputnik | Reuters
Russia President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia will do everything it can to avoid a global confrontation but said the country would “not allow anyone to threaten us.”
Addressing thousands of troops, officials, veterans and guests at the May 9 Victory Day parade in Moscow — an annual event that marks the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II — Putin said Russia’s strategic nuclear forces were always combat-ready.
Putin said the truth about World War II was being “distorted” while Russia had never denigrated the contribution of allies during the conflict.
— Holly Ellyatt
Ukraine air attack on Belgorod injures 8, governor says
A Ukrainian air attack on Russia’s Belgorod region injured eight people and damaged scores of residential buildings and cars, the governor of the region bordering with Ukraine said on Thursday.
Among the wounded is an 11-year-old girl who was taken to a hospital, Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor said on the Telegram messaging app.
About 34 flats in 19 apartment buildings were damaged, as well as three dozen cars in the city of Belgorod, the region’s administrative centre, Gladkov added.
Russia’s air defense systems destroyed 15 rockets launched from the RM-70 Vampir system, and one drone over the region, Russia’s defense ministry said.
Russian officials in the region of Belgorod, Russia, on Feb. 15, 2024.
Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Images
Three drones were also downed over Russia’s Kursk region and two over the Bryansk region, the ministry said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app. All regions border Ukraine.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine. Kyiv has said often that destroying military, energy and transport infrastructure inside Russia undermines Moscow’s overall war efforts.
— Reuters
Russia holds Victory Day parade
It might be raining in Moscow Thursday but Russia’s leadership and military are out in force for the annual “Victory Day” military parade.
President Vladimir Putin, commander-in-chief of the armed forces, is watching on as thousands of Russian troops, tanks, armored vehicles and weaponry are paraded through Red Square in Moscow.
Soldiers march at the Victory Day military parade to commemorate the 78th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory in the Great Patriotic War, at Moscow’s Red Square, on May 9, 2023.
Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty Images
Russian strike hits school sports field, injures children and adults
A Russian air strike hit a school sports field in Ukraine’s city of Kharkiv on Wednesday, injuring multiple children and adults, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said in a Google-translated post on Telegram.
Three male teenagers were injured while playing soccer, Syniehubov said, adding that two of them were in serious condition and had been taken to hospital. A young girl as well as three adults were also injured, some of whom were also hospitalized, according to Syniehubov.
CNBC could not independently verify developments on the ground.
Rescuers of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine and police officers respond at the site of a Russian airstrike on a sports field in the Saltivskyi district on May 8, 2024 in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Eugene Hertnier/Suspilne Ukraine/JSC “UA:PBC” | Global Images Ukraine | Getty Images
Rescuers of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine respond at the site of a Russian airstrike on a sports field in the Saltivskyi district on May 8, 2024 in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Eugene Hertnier/Suspilne Ukraine/JSC “UA:PBC” | Global Images Ukraine | Getty Images
Paramedics provide first aid to a person injured following a Russian airstrike on a sports field in the Saltivskyi district on May 8, 2024 in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Oleksandr Stavytskyy/Suspilne Ukraine/JSC “UA:PBC”| Global Images Ukraine | Getty Images
EU ambassadors agree to use profits from frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine
European Union ambassadors have come to an agreement about using the profits from frozen Russian assets for Ukraine, the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU said on Wednesday.
“EU ambassadors agreed in principle on measures concerning extraordinary revenues stemming from Russia’s immobilised assets,” it said in a post on social media platform X. “The money will serve to support #Ukraine’s recovery and military defence in the context of the Russian aggression.”
European leaders still have to approve the new law.
As much as 90% of the proceeds will be allocated to a fund for military aid for Ukraine that is run by the EU, Reuters reported, citing multiple EU sources, while 10% would be used for other support of the country.
This comes after the EU earlier this year said it had ringfenced the profits from frozen Russian assets and was discussing if and how they could be used to support Ukraine as legal questions remained unresolved.
— Sophie Kiderlin
Russia says it’s seized two more Ukrainian villages
Russian forces claimed Wednesday that they’ve seized two more villages in the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions.
Russia’s defense ministry said its central and western grouping of troops had occupied Novokalynove in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, and Kyslivka, in Kharkiv, northeast Ukraine.
The ministry did not provide evidence for its claims, announced on Telegram, although Russian forces have been making incremental advances in eastern Ukraine in recent weeks. CNBC was unable to verify the latest battlefield claims.
A Russian National guard serviceman stands guard at an embankment of the Moskva river opposite the Kremlin on the morning of the Victory Day military parade.
Alexander Nemenov | Afp | Getty Images
It was widely reported that Russian forces were looking to try to capture the strategically-valuable town of Chasiv Yar in Donetsk before the May 9 “Victory Day” military parade in Moscow.
But (if verified) the latest territorial gains, or “liberations” as Russia calls them, are not located near Chasiv Yar. Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War think tank noted Tuesday that “Russian forces continued assaults near Chasiv Yar on May 7, but there were no confirmed changes to the frontline.”
— Holly Ellyatt
Kremlin warns of ‘huge danger’ if NATO troops are sent to Ukraine
U.S. Army soldiers assigned to the 82nd Airborne carry military equipment as they take part in an exercise outside the operating base at the Arlamow Airport on March 7th, 2022 in Wola Korzeniecka, Poland.
Omar Marques | Getty Images
The Kremlin doubled down on warning that any deployment of NATO troops in Ukraine would represent a significant and dangerous escalation of tensions between Russia and the military alliance.
When asked to comment on a petition posted on the Ukrainian presidential website Tuesday calling for NATO troops from the U.S., U.K. and EU to be sent to Ukraine, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that such a move would be hazardous.
“[The] Kyiv regime is quite unpredictable,” Peskov said Wednesday, in comments translated by NBC News.
“We have repeatedly said that direct intervention in this conflict on the ground by militaries of NATO countries poses a huge danger, a huge danger. Therefore, we consider this an extremely defiant provocation, no less. And of course we are watching this very closely.”
Earlier, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told reporters that French troops would be targeted by the Russian army if they were deployed on Ukrainian soil after French President Emmanuel Macron said such a deployment could not be ruled out if Russian troops broke through Ukrainian front lines.
— Holly Ellyatt
Read CNBC’s previous live coverage here:
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