Zelenskyy says Russia will be defeated ‘as Nazism was’ as residents flee nuclear threat

Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made a solemn prediction that ‘evil’ Russian forces will be defeated just as Nazi Germany was beaten in 1945. Warning: Graphic

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed on Monday, local time, that Russian forces would be defeated in Ukraine just as Nazi Germany was beaten in 1945, during an address commemorating the end of World War II.

His speech recorded at a war memorial in Kyiv comes one day ahead of Victory Day in Moscow, a Soviet war anniversary to be marked by an army parade through Red Square with security on high alert.

A high-rise residential building damaged by remains of a shot down Russian drone in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Picture: AFP

A view of an apartment damaged by debris of a Russian intercepted drone, in a residential building on May 8, 2023 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Picture: Getty Images

Ukrainian forces meanwhile said they had downed nearly three dozen Russian attack drones, spurring explosions and air raid sirens in the capital overnight.

“All the old evil that modern Russia is bringing back will be defeated just as Nazism was defeated,” Mr Zelenskyy said in a video at Kyiv’s World War II memorial and park.

“Just as we destroyed evil together then, we are destroying a similar evil together now,” he added.

Mr Zelenskyy was speaking on the anniversary of Nazi Germany’s surrender to allied forces on May 8, 1945, Victory in Europe Day.

King Charles III holds an audience with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Buckingham Palace during his first visit to the UK. Picture: Getty Images

The Kremlin has leaned on World War II rhetoric to justify its invasion of Ukraine, saying in February last year it was launching the war to “de-Nazify” Ukraine.

But the Ukraine leader said the Kremlin was responsible for “aggression and annexation, occupation and deportation,” as well as “mass murder and torture”.

“All of this will be answered by our victory, the victory of Ukraine and the free world.”

The address came hours after Ukrainian forces said they had downed 35 drones launched by Russia in an attack that left five people wounded in Kyiv.

Workers load a destroyed car on the lorry after the remains of a shot down Russian drone exploded near residential buildings in Kyiv. Picture: AFP

AFP journalists on the scene after the attack saw a gutted apartment damaged by debris in the Svyatoshynsky district of the capital.

In the eastern Donetsk region, Ukraine said Russian forces had deployed phosphorus munitions in Bakhmut, the epicentre of fighting for several months.

Victory Day, a key event on the Russian political calendar under Russian President Vladimir Putin, is going ahead despite a series of recent sabotage attacks in the country.

Evacuees from Zaporizhzhia region at the railway station of the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. Picture: AFP

MASS EVACUATION IN THE FACE OF NUCLEAR DISASTER

Russian leader Vladimir Putin has sparked a “mad panic” after ordering the mass evacuation of a town near Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant.

The UN’s nuclear watchdog has warned of a “severe nuclear accident” after Moscow ordered the emptying of 18 towns and villages closest to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, where most of its workers live.

According to The Sun, Ukrainian officials said there were five-hour waits as thousands of cars fled the area as Putin’s orders created a “mad panic” over an approaching nuclear disaster.

The plant is near the front lines of fighting, where Kyiv said today a 72-year-old woman was killed and three others were wounded after Russian forces fired a barrage of shells into the area neighbouring the plant.

Evacuees from Zaporizhzhia region walk on a platform after arriving by an evacuation train at the railway station of the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. Picture: AFP

The region is also considered a likely area where Ukraine may focus its anticipated counteroffensive.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Rafael Grossi said that the situation at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is “becoming increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous.”

He added: “I’m extremely concerned about the very real nuclear safety and security risks facing the plant.”

Mr Grossi explained that IAEA experts at the nuclear site are continuing to hear shelling regularly.

Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), visits the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine. Picture: AFP

Russian head of the partially-occupied Zaporizhzhia region, Yevgeny Balitsky, led the evacuation of the nuclear plant.

This included the large town of Enerhodar in a bid to “strengthen security” as they brace for Ukraine’s expected counteroffensive.

The settlements affected are about 40 to 60kms from the front line of fighting between Ukraine and Russia, and Balitsky said that Ukraine had intensified attacks on the area in the past several days.

Ukrainian rescuers remove debris from the five-storey residential building destroyed after a missile strike in Zaporizhzhia amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Picture: AFP

“I decided to remove, first of all, children with their parents, the elderly, the disabled, patients of medical institutions from enemy fire and move them from the frontline territories deep into the region,” Mr Balitsky wrote on Telegram.

“This is a necessary measure to ensure the safety of the residents of the front line territories.”

The Ukrainian General Staff said Sunday that the evacuation of Enerhodar had already begun.

The first people to be evacuated where those who took Russian citizenship following the capture of the town by Moscow early in the war.

This handout picture taken and released by Ukrainian Presidential Chief of Staff, Andriy Yermak shows a destroyed house after a strike in the city of Zaporizhzhia. Picture: AFP

“We must act now to prevent the threat of a severe nuclear accident and its associated consequence for the population and the environment,” Mr Grossi said.

“This major nuclear facility must be protected. I will continue to press for a commitment by all sides to achieve this vital objective.”

Ivan Fedorov, the exiled mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, said that shops in the evacuated areas had run out of goods and medicine, while hospitals were discharging people onto the streets.

“The partial evacuation they announced is going too fast,” Fedorov said. “Under the guise of a contrived ‘evacuation’, the occupiers are preparing real provocations.”

The Ukrainian politician also made the claim that two-thirds of the evacuation convoys - supposed to be filled with civilians - were actually transporting retreating Russian troops.

MERCENARY’S BLOOD SOAKED THREAT FORCES MOSCOW TO DELIVER

The head of the Wagner mercenary group said on Sunday that Russia had promised his fighters enough ammunition to stay in Bakhmut, after threatening to pull out in scathing videos.

Rivalries between Yevgeny Prigozhin and the conventional Russian army came to a head during the battle for the eastern Ukrainian town, where Wagner is leading the assault.

“Overnight we received a combat order … they promised to give us all the ammunition and armaments we need to continue the operations” in Bakhmut, Prigozhin said.

His group has been assured “that everything necessary will be provided,” he added.

On Friday, local time, Prigozhin vowed to pull frontline troops out of Bakhmut on May 10 in an extraordinary, blood-soaked video rant against Russian military chiefs.

Exposing a seismic rift between Russia’s official troops and paramilitary forces, Prigozhin posted a series of expletive-filled tirades blaming Moscow’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov for “tens of thousands” of killed and wounded fighters in the longest and bloodiest battle of the campaign.

“On May 10, 2023 we will have to hand over our positions in Bakhmut to units of the defence ministry and withdraw Wagner units to rear camps to lick our wounds,” Prigozhin said on Telegram.

“I will pull out Wagner units from Bakhmut because, in the absence of ammunition, they are facing a senseless death,” he continued, adding that he was now expecting a plan from the military on how to implement the withdrawal.

Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin stands above a field of dead Russians killed in the meatgrinder of Bakhmut. Picture: Supplied

The threat to withdraw the tip of the spear against Ukraine’s expected offensive comes after screaming into the camera against a backdrop of bloodied bodies vowing to hold Russia’s top commanders accountable for withhold ammo in the battle for the key city.

“For the tens of thousands killed and wounded, they will bear responsibility in front of their mothers and children, I will achieve that,” he said. “Their unprofessionalism is destroying tens of thousands of Russian guys and that is unforgivable.”

Wagner has borne the brunt of the months-long meat grinder in Bakhmut, which Ukraine said Russia aimed to control in time for World War II Victory Day celebrations on May 9.

Standing in front of dead bodies, Prigozhin blamed Shoigu and Gerasimov for their deaths so that they “can get fat”.

“Shoigu! Gerasimov! Where is my f*cking ammunition?” Prigozhin said in the video.

“They came here as volunteers and they are dying so you can get fat in your wood-panelled offices,” he said, standing by the bodies.

“These guys are from Wagner. They died today. Their blood is still fresh,” he said, adding that army chiefs “will go to hell”.

“We have an ammunition shortage of 70 per cent,” he said in his tirade, in which several expletives were bleeped out.

“You sit in your (bleeped) expensive clubs … You think you are the masters of life and you have the right to decide on their lives,” he said, pointing at the bodies.

Yevgeny Prigozhin blamed Russia’s top military commanders for the ‘tens of thousands’ of deaths in Ukraine. Picture: Supplied

The mercenary leader said Russia’s regular army had withheld ammunition from its paramilitary forces. Picture: Supplied

Wagner group would pull out of Bakhmut within five days, Prigozhin said in the expletive filled tirade. Picture: Supplied

Prigozhin is closely linked to Putin and the two started their careers in business and politics in their native Saint Petersburg following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

In his statement, Prigozhin said his fighters had mobilised soon after the start of the campaign in Ukraine and helped Russian troops advance after a series of reversals.

“We will lick our wounds and when the motherland will be in danger — we will again come to its defence. The Russian people can count on us,” he said.

In a daily update on the offensive, the Russian army did not point to anything amiss in relations with the Wagner group, saying “assault units” continued to fight for the western part of the city “supported by paratroopers.” The row within Russian ranks came as Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov repeated Russian accusations of US involvement in an alleged Ukrainian drone attack on the Kremlin.

Prigozhin said ammunition shortages meant they faced ‘senseless death’. Picture: Supplied

During a visit to the Indian state of Goa for a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting, Lavrov said the attack could not have happened without Washington’s awareness.

“We will respond with concrete actions,” he said.

Ukraine has denied responsibility, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying “we do not attack Moscow or Putin.” The United States also rejected any accusation of involvement and accused the Kremlin of “lying” about its role in the drone attack.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned Moscow on Thursday “not to use this alleged attack as an excuse to continue the escalation of the war.”