Nuclear missiles have rolled through Red Square in a chilling warning to the West as president Vladimir Putin prepares for his annual Victory Day parade – while desperately seeking a victory in his bloody assault on Ukraine.
The RS-24 Yars ballistic missile – which experts believe can can carry up to 10 warheads – was seen taking pride and joy as it was driven past rows of armed guards on a 16-wheeler vehicle on Saturday.
The intercontinental weapon, which weighs 49.6 tonnes, can travel up to 24,500km/hr and is capable of hitting targets up to 12,000km away – meaning it could strike London or New York within minutes.
The weapon of mass destruction was followed closely by several Iskander-M missile launchers during a rehearsal for the military parade, set to take place on Monday.
Jubilant soldiers and servicewomen were seen marching outside the Kremlin today in preparation for the huge celebration next week, which celebrates Russia’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two.
Brandishing guns, they waved Russian flags, performed salutes and smiled at the cameras.
Meanwhile, just 1,200km away, Ukrainian soldiers are preparing to make their last stand against Putin’s warring forces in the strategic port city of Mariupol – where hundreds of civilians are cowering for their lives in tunnels underneath a steel mill as they attempt a last-ditch evacuation.
We are also working on diplomatic options to save our troops who are still at Azovstal,’ he said in his nightly video address.
UN officials have been tight-lipped about the civilian evacuation efforts, but it seemed likely that the latest evacuees would be taken to Zaporizhzhia, a Ukrainian-controlled city about 140 miles north-west of Mariupol where others who escaped the port city were brought.
Some of the plant’s previous evacuees spoke to the AP about the horrors of being surrounded by death in the moldy, underground bunker with little food and water, poor medical care and diminishing hope. Some said they felt guilty for leaving others behind.
Russian forces have struggled to make significant gains elsewhere, 10 weeks into a devastating war that has killed thousands of people, forced millions to flee the country and flattened large swaths of cities.
Ukrainian officials said the risk of massive shelling increased ahead of Victory Day.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said authorities would reinforce street patrols in the capital.
Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, which was the target of two missile attacks on Friday, is to adopt a curfew.
The Ukrainian military’s general staff said that its forces repelled 11 attacks in the Donbas region and destroyed tanks and armoured vehicles, further frustrating Mr Putin’s ambitions after his abortive attempt to seize Kyiv. Russia made no acknowledgement of the losses.
The Ukrainian army also said it made progress in the north-eastern Kharkiv region, recapturing five villages and part of a sixth.
Meanwhile, one person was reported dead and three more were wounded Friday as a result of Russian shelling in Lyman, a city in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
The fall of Mariupol would deprive Ukraine of a vital port. It would also allow Russia to establish a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014, and free some Russian troops to fight elsewhere in the Donbas, the eastern industrial region that the Kremlin says is now its chief objective.
The city’s capture also holds symbolic value since it has been the scene of some of the worst suffering of the war and a surprisingly fierce resistance.