Moscow prepares to ensure security on May 9, Russian Victory Day

First modification: 02/05/2023 – 20:46

Several Russian regions cancel the so-called Victory Day parades amid fears of an upcoming Ukrainian counter-offensive.

Although the Army of the country invaded by Moscow announced since last March that it would launch a large-scale operation to recover its territories – and that it would take place before the end of spring – so far it has avoided giving a specific date.

But the Kremlin remains vigilant. In the last few hours, the Russian government spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, assured that they do everything necessary to ensure the safety of the May 9 parade on Red Square in Moscow. A date that some analysts and pro-Russian leaders have linked to the expected counteroffensive of kyiv.

If confirmed, the date would coincide with the so-called Victory Day in Russia, which commemorates the victory of the Soviet Union over the so Nazi Germany in 1945.

“We are aware that the Kiev regime, which is behind a series of terrorist attacks, plans to continue its line. All our special services are doing everything necessary to ensure security. Intensive work is underway,” Peskov said.

Peskov’s statements come after Moscow accused the army of the invaded country in recent days of attacks and sabotage in Russian border areas and in the Crimean peninsula, in southern Ukraine and annexed by Vladimir Putin in 2014.

Among these actions, a drone attack stands out that caused a fire and destroyed a Russian fuel depot, in the port of Sebastopol, on Saturday, April 29. A fact that was described by Kiev as a “punishment from God”, since it occurred one day after a series of Russian attacks in Ukraine, which only in the central city of Uman left 23 civilians dead.

On Monday, May 1, a locomotive and seven carriages of a freight train bound for Belarus derailed in Bryansk after an unidentified explosive device went off, regional governor Alexander Bogomaz said.

And on Tuesday, invading Russian troops accused kyiv forces of shelling a village in Russia’s Bryansk region.

“In the morning, the Armed Forces of Ukraine shelled the village of Kurkovichi in the Starodubsky municipal district (…) There were no casualties. As a result of the shelling, a fire broke out in one of the houses,” Bogomaz said.

Russian authorities say the region, which borders Ukraine and Belarus, has suffered multiple attacks by pro-Ukrainian sabotage groups since Russia launched the war 14 months ago. However, the Administration of Volodimir Zelensky has not publicly claimed responsibility for these assaults.

Russia takes precautions in the face of the announced Ukrainian counteroffensive

The Ukrainian counteroffensive would be imminent and from the Russian side they take precautionary measures.

In the last few hours it became known that at least six Russian regions canceled the Victory Day military parades, amid fears of attacks by the invaded nation’s military.

The governor of Saratov, a region 400 miles from the border with Ukraine, was the latest to join the series of cancellations after assuring that he made the decision out of “security concerns.”

Previously, the governors of Belgorod, Kursk, Voronezh, Oryol and Pskov; as well as the Crimean peninsula, occupied by Russia, made the same decision.

“There will not be a parade so as not to provoke the enemy with a large number of teams and service members in the center of Belgorod,” the leader of that region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, had advanced last April.

The spate of suspensions of Russia’s annual events would be a stark admission of the invading country’s military vulnerability, after more than 14 months of war.

The big Ukrainian offensive that promises to recover the territories seized by the Kremlin would be ready to proceed after NATO confirmed that it has already sent almost all of the important military equipment promised to Kiev, including war tanks, armored vehicles and munitions.

With Reuters and AP