Kyiv/Zaporizhzhia - Russian forces stormed the Azovstal steel plant in Ukraine's strategic port of Mariupol on Monday and stepped-up missile strikes elsewhere, Ukrainian officials said, as President Vladimir Putin oversaw a parade of military firepower in Moscow.
The Victory Day parade on Moscow’s Red Square, saw troops marching in formation and military hardware on display to celebrate the Soviet Union’s role in the 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany.
Putin’s much-anticipated speech offered no new insights into how he intends to salvage the grinding war, and instead stuck to allegations that Ukraine posed a threat to Russia, even though Moscow’s nuclear-armed forces are far superior in number and firepower.
Putin did not mention the potentially pivotal battle for the vital southern port of Mariupol and not even uttering the word “Ukraine.”
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in his own Victory Day address, said his country would triumph over Russian forces.
"On the Day of Victory over Nazism, we are fighting for a new victory. The road to it is difficult, but we have no doubt that we will win," he said in a video address to mark the deaths of more than eight million Ukrainians in World War Two.
Putin has already declared victory in Mariupol but control of the Azovstal steel plant would be a symbolic achievement on the 75th day of a war that has cost many Russian lives and isolated its economy but failed to capture any major city.
-AP/Reuters