On the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has compared his country’s current defence against a Russian invasion to Ukrainian efforts to the defeat of Nazi Germany.
“Eighty years ago, millions of Ukrainians fought to defeat Nazism forever,” he said in a video message recorded during his Wednesday visit to the town of Yahidne in the northern Ukrainian region of Chernihiv, the scene of an alleged Russian war crime in 2022.
“But today Ukrainians are once again standing against the evil that has been reborn, has come back and wants to destroy us again.”
In March 2022, the Russian occupation in Yahidne locked more than 350 villagers, including 80 children, in the basement of the school for weeks. The case is documented not only by Ukrainians, but also by international media organizations. Zelensky said that 10 people had died in this confinement and a further 17 had been killed.
For him, the events show what Russia is like under its president, Vladimir Putin. “If this is not Nazism, what is it?” Zelensky asked in the emotional video.
The Ukrainian army liberated Yahidne at the end of March 2022, Zelensky said. He saw this as a sign that history could repeat itself, as in the victory over the Nazis: “Everyone who has come to destroy us will eventually flee Ukrainian land.”
Russia celebrates the anniversary of Germany’s surrender in World War II in May 1945 as a national holiday, with a huge military parade planned for Thursday in Moscow’s Red Square.
Moscow also portrays its war against Ukraine, ordered by Putin in February 2022, as an alleged continuation of the fight against fascism.
On the ground, seven people, including four minors, were injured in Russian airstrikes on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, according to official figures.
An 8-year-old girl and three boys aged between 13 and 15 were taken to hospital, the military governor of the region, Oleh Syniehubov, posted on his Telegram channel on Wednesday, adding that a projectile hit an educational institution.
Russia repeatedly attacks Kharkiv, which is close to the border in north-east Ukraine and predominantly Russian-speaking, with artillery, but also with missiles and drones.
Power generation and distribution facilities in six regions were attacked overnight, Energy Minister German Galushchenko said on Facebook on Wednesday. He named the regions of Poltava, Kirovohrad, Zaporizhzhya, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Vinnytsia.
Technicians are working to repair the damage, the exact extent is still being determined, he said.
“The enemy wants to take away our ability to generate and transmit electricity in sufficient quantities,” the minister wrote. He called on the population to save electricity as a “contribution to victory.”
A night-time air alert sounded in large parts of Ukraine as Russian combat drones and missiles flew over the country. According to the Ukrainian Air Force, one of them was aimed at Kiev.
The capital’s military command later said that all approaching objects had been intercepted.
According to the air force, a Kinzhal hypersonic missile was fired at western Ukraine.
Given the shortage of soldiers, Ukraine has decided to allow some prisoners to volunteer for military service, Ukrainian media reported on Wednesday.
However unlike in Russia, which has mobilized tens of thousands of prisoners, including murderers and sex offenders, in Ukraine convicted murderers and rapists will not be allowed to enlist.
Drug dealers, those serving time for serious corruption offences, former members of parliament, ministers, high-ranking civil servants as well as those convicted of national security offences will also not be eligible to serve.
According to the new law in Ukraine, prisoners can enlist in the army if their remaining sentence is no longer than three years. They should serve in separate units under guard, explained member of parliament Olena Shuliak.
Military service does not end at the end of the sentence, but at the end of the contract or general demobilization.
Ukraine is trying to remedy the shortage of soldiers at the front with several laws. For example, the conscription age has been lowered and the registration of conscripted men has been improved.