Putin is a ‘Nazi,’ Zelensky says as Russia steps up attacks on energy grid ahead of Victory Day – POLITICO

For decades, Moscow’s annual May 9 parade was not so much a memorial to victory over Nazi Germany in World War II as a carefully choreographed spectacle of might and might. Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, the Kremlin has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine in the run-up to Victory Day to support its propaganda efforts – seeking to give Putin something to boast about during of his annual speech on Red Square.

This year, Russian forces were ordered to capture the strategic Ukrainian town of Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region by May 9. Although they had not yet succeeded in this task, the Russians took advantage of Ukraine’s arms shortage and troop exhaustion to quickly gain ground. territory, taking control of several small villages in the Donetsk region.

Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko said Wednesday’s attacks were primarily aimed at civilian energy infrastructure, targeting electricity generation and transmission facilities in the regions of Poltava, Kirovohrad, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, Ivano- Frankivsk and Vinnytsia.

“The enemy wants to deprive us of the ability to produce and transmit enough electricity,” Galushchenko said, urging Ukrainians to limit their energy consumption, especially during morning and evening peak periods. “It’s the contribution of each of us to victory. Light will prevail,” added the minister.

Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK, said the attacks seriously damaged equipment at three of its power plants overnight. “This is already the fifth massive bombing of the company’s energy facilities in the last month and a half,” the company said in a statement.