UPDATE 3-Russia and Ukraine fight on despite ceasefires as Moscow readies for WW2 parade

Russia and Ukraine ‌accused each ​other on Friday of violating ceasefires that each has separately declared, as Moscow prepares to hold its annual World War Two victory parade under tight security. Four years since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the two sides are still pummelling each other with missiles, drones and artillery, with no end to the war in sight.

Russia and Ukraine ‌accused each ​other on Friday of violating ceasefires that each has separately declared, as Moscow prepares to hold its annual World War Two victory parade under tight security.

Four years since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the two sides are still pummelling each other with missiles, drones and artillery, with no end to the war in sight. President Vladimir Putin has unilaterally declared ‌a two-day ceasefire on Friday and Saturday to cover the celebrations of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany - Russia's most revered national holiday.

Kyiv responded that a ceasefire just for the holiday was inappropriate and called instead for an indefinite truce to begin two days earlier, which Moscow ignored. The Russian Defence Ministry said 264 Ukrainian drones had been downed in the early hours of Friday, while Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the capital had been targeted and officials said the Urals region of Perm had been ‌attacked with drones.

Ukraine said it had struck a Russian oil refinery in Perm for the second day running, and hit another oil facility in the city of Yaroslavl. Russia has warned that any attempt by Ukraine to disrupt ‌the Victory Day military parade on Red Square on Saturday would lead to a massive missile strike on Kyiv. Moscow has told foreign diplomats that if Ukraine does attack the event, they should evacuate the Ukrainian capital.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russian forces continued to strike Ukrainian positions overnight, which he said showed Russia has not made "even a token attempt to cease fire on the front." "As we did over the past 24 hours, Ukraine will respond in kind today as well. We will defend our positions and people's lives," Zelenskiy said.

Ukranian drone commander Robert Brovdi acknowledged in comments to The Guardian that a "symbolic" ⁠attack on Red ​Square would generate headlines around the world but said Ukraine would probably ⁠deliver a "slap in the face" where Russia’s air defences were weaker. "Why waste drones on the ‘great wall’,” he said, referring to the enhanced security around Moscow. "If you hit the energy sector or military that’s the best strike, on the periphery."

WAR AMID WW2 VICTORY CELEBRATIONS The Soviet Union lost 27 million ⁠people in World War Two, including many millions in Ukraine, but pushed Nazi forces back to Berlin, where Adolf Hitler committed suicide and the red Soviet Victory Banner was raised over the Reichstag in May 1945.

This year's parade in Moscow - usually a show of Russian military ​might with intercontinental ballistic missiles and tanks - will have no military equipment on display due to the threat of attack from Ukraine. The Kremlin has said Russia is stepping up security around Putin in case of a Ukrainian ⁠attack on the event, at which Putin will give a speech. He is later due to meet visiting foreign dignitaries, including from Laos, Malaysia and Slovakia.

The Kremlin has tried to use the victory parades in recent years to rally Russians around the war in Ukraine, but Moscow's troops have now been fighting ⁠in ​Ukraine for well over four years - longer than the Soviet involvement, from 1941-45, in what Russians refer to as the Great Patriotic War. Olga Vlasova, a Russian researcher at King's College London, said it was striking that the authorities, by scaling back this year's parade, were playing up the danger of a Ukrainian attack instead of portraying the event as a celebration.

"They are deliberately making a fear statement... They are trying to tell people finally, in the fifth year of the ⁠war, that there is a war and it's our reality," she said in a telephone interview. She said this messaging, together with other recent moves including a tightening of control over the internet, was part of a wider effort to instil ⁠fear and control on a war-weary population.

Moscow is on high alert ⁠for any attempt by Ukraine to disrupt events on Saturday: Russian security officers atop all-terrain vehicles were seen near the Kremlin, while metro stations will be closed across central Moscow. Russia, which controls about 19.4% of Ukraine, has seen its advances slow this year, taking just 700 square km in the first four months of the year, according to pro-Ukrainian maps.

Peace ‌talks are stalled, with Ukraine rejecting Putin's demand ‌that it surrender territory it has successfully defended since 2022.