Zelenskyy urges leaders to skip Moscow parade

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russia has announced a May 8-9 ceasefire, but warned of strikes on Kyiv if Ukraine violates it.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Russian troops would cease fire on the front line from 00:00 on May 8 until 00:00 on May 10 and would not strike targets on Ukrainian territory, thereby confirming the ceasefire announced by Russian authorities for Victory Day celebrations.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv would respond to Russia’s actions “symmetrically,” but warned that foreign leaders were not advised to travel to the parade in Moscow, BBC reported.

Russia’s military department officially said that from midnight on May 8 its troops would “completely cease hostilities” on the front line.

“At the same time, strikes using missile forces and artillery, long-range high-precision sea- and air-based weapons, and attack unmanned aerial vehicles against Ukrainian Armed Forces deployment sites deep inside Ukrainian territory, as well as military-industrial complex facilities and infrastructure linked to the armed forces, are being halted,” Russia’s Defense Ministry said.

The ministry also called on “the Ukrainian side to follow this example.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that if Ukraine violates the ceasefire, the Russian army will give an “adequate response.” In the statement, the military repeated threats voiced by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova about the possibility of launching “a massive missile strike on the center of Kyiv” if there is an attempt “to disrupt celebrations in Moscow marking the 81st anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War.”

“We again warn Kyiv’s civilian population and staff of foreign diplomatic missions of the need to leave the city in a timely manner,” the statement said.

On the evening of May 7, Ukraine’s president published an address in which he recalled that Kyiv had proposed a ceasefire from midnight on May 6, but Russia had not officially responded and had continued striking Ukrainian cities and forces on the front line.

“They [Russian authorities] want permission from Ukraine to hold their parade, so that once a year, for one hour, they can safely go out onto the square and then continue killing our people and waging war.

We have received appeals from a number of states close to Russia whose representatives plan to be in Moscow. A strange wish... on these days. We do not recommend it,” the Ukrainian president said.

At the same time, he repeated his earlier statement: “Ukraine’s position is as transparent and honest as possible: Ukraine will act symmetrically. If there were silence, there would be no Ukrainian long-range sanctions.”

By “long-range sanctions,” Zelenskyy referred to Ukrainian strikes on targets deep inside Russian territory. In the same address, he mentioned recent strikes on targets in Russia, including a military vessel in the Caspian Sea and an oil facility in Perm Krai.

Earlier, the Kremlin published a list of foreign leaders who will travel to Moscow to attend May 9 events. According to the list, Victory Day celebrations will be attended by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith, Malaysia’s supreme ruler Sultan Ibrahim, and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who does not plan to attend the military parade on Red Square.

Representatives of Republika Srpska, as well as the presidents of self-proclaimed Abkhazia and South Ossetia, will also be in Moscow.

“We did not specifically invite foreign guests, as last year,” Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov told journalists.

This is the Kremlin’s shortest May 9 guest list since 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. That year, no foreign leader traveled to Moscow either, while the Kremlin said it had invited no one.

Earlier, it became known that the military equipment column, as well as Suvorov and Nakhimov military school cadets, would not take part in the 2026 parade on Red Square for the first time.

The Kremlin explained the change in the parade format by the threat of air attacks and the fact that this year’s date is not an anniversary.

On May 9, mobile communications in Moscow will be completely shut down, and even websites included in so-called “white lists” will be inaccessible. On the evening of May 7, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it had sent a letter to foreign embassies on May 4 calling on them to “ensure the prior evacuation of their staff” from Kyiv.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova explained this by the “inevitability of a retaliatory strike by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation against Kyiv, including decision-making centers.”

Moscow claimed Ukraine had threatened to strike Moscow on May 9 and promised to respond with a massive attack on Ukraine’s capital if that happened.

Zelensky did not issue a direct threat against Moscow during the military parade. In a speech in Yerevan, he said: “Russia has announced that the May 9 parade in Moscow will be held without military equipment. If that happens, it will be the first time in many years. They cannot afford military equipment and fear that drones may fly over Red Square. This is a telling fact; it shows they are not strong.”

Responding to statements by Russia’s Foreign Ministry, European Commission spokesman Anouar El Anouni said the European Union does not plan to evacuate diplomats from Kyiv.

“Russia’s public threats to attack Kyiv are part of its reckless escalatory tactics. As for us, the EU, we will not change our position or presence in Kyiv,” he said.

“Russian attacks in Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine are a daily reality,” El Anouni said, noting that previous strikes had damaged diplomatic missions, including the EU mission.

Russia ignored Ukraine’s proposal to establish a ceasefire from May 6 and continued launching drones at Kharkiv, Sumy, cities in Dnipropetrovsk region, and other places.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces responded with new long-range drone attacks on targets in Russia. In particular, on the morning of May 7, drones again struck oil facilities in Perm, for the third time in the past two weeks.