Russia-Ukraine Crisis: Russian forces bombed a village school in eastern Ukraine killing about 60 people, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, as Russia prepared to mark the Monday anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two. The governor of the Luhansk region said about 90 people were sheltering at the school in Bilohorivka on Saturday when it was bombed.
More than 170 civilians were evacuated from the Mariupol area bringing the total to about 600 given safe passage during a week-long rescue operation, the United Nations said. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced new weapons and equipment for Ukraine on Sunday after an unannounced visit to Kyiv, the capital. Meanwhile, Trudeau, addressing a news conference after talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, also said Canada was imposing new sanctions on Russian individuals and entities in connection with Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Japan will ban Russian crude oil imports “in principle,” as part of a Group of Seven (G7) campaign to counter Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, prime minister Fumio Kishida said after an online meeting of G7 leaders. Putin, Russia’s paramount leader since 1999, has in recent years used Victory Day to needle the West from a tribune in Red Square before a parade of troops, tanks, rockets and intercontinental ballistic missiles.
President Vladimir Putin will lead anniversary celebrations of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany on Monday as Russian forces fight Ukrainians in one of the deadliest European conflicts since the end of World War II, 77 years ago.