Ukrainian drones strike Moscow hours before leaders arrive for WW2 parade

Russia and Ukraine exchanged a barrage of strikes overnight on Tuesday, less than a day before Russia's proposed ceasefire is set to begin.

Most of Moscow's airports were forced to close in response to the strikes, just as Chinese President Xi Jinping and other world leaders are due to arrive in the Russian capital for a World War Two victory parade.

Vladimir Putin has called for a three-day ceasefire to coincide with the event, beginning on 8 May. Kyiv rejected the idea as "theatrical play", reiterating its call for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire.

At least two people were killed in Kyiv on Tuesday night, officials said, as Volodymyr Zelensky called for "significantly intensified pressure on Russia".

Falling debris from destroyed drones sparked fires in apartments and buildings across three of Kyiv's districts on Tuesday night, killing a woman and her son in the Shevchenkivskyi district and injuring a further seven.

Zelensky said Russia had launched four ballistic missiles and 142 drones at Ukraine overnight. Emergency services have been deployed across the country, including in the Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Zhytomyr, Kherson and Dnipro regions.

The Ukrainian President called for "stronger sanctions" against Russia in a statement on X, saying it "must be held accountable for its actions".

Moscow's Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that Russian air defence units had destroyed at least 14 Ukrainian drones. No damage has been reported.

It is the third consecutive night that Ukrainian drone strikes have targeted Moscow, and the second night in a row that the city's key airports have been forced to close for several hours.

At least 350 flights have been delayed or cancelled in Russia, AFP news agency reported.

It comes hours before a ceasefire proposed by Putin last month is scheduled to begin, at 00:00 local time on 8 May (22:00 BST on 7 May). It is planned to coincide with a massive military parade commemorating the 80th anniversary of World War Two.

A host of world leaders are set to attend the event in Moscow's Red Square, including Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Vietnam's President To Lam and Venezuela's president Nicholas Maduro.

Russia announced that Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic is among the 29 leaders due to attend. Brussels has issued a warning to Vucic that attendance would damage Serbia's EU membership negotiations.

Earlier this month, Zelesnky warned that Ukraine could not guarantee the safety of anyone travelling to Moscow for the parade. "We cannot be held responsible for what happens on the territory of the Russian Federation," Ukrainian news agency Interfax reported him as saying.

He called Putin's ceasefire proposal a "manipulation" and a "game" designed to protect the ceremony.

Ukraine's foreign ministry has warned against the participation of any foreign troops, calling it "unacceptable" and helping Moscow to "whitewash its war crimes".

China has sent 102 soldiers - the largest foreign military contingent among the 13 participating nations - to take part.

Xi Jinping will be the guest of honour at the celebrations. The Chinese President hailed the "resilient" relationship between Russia and China in an article for Russia's Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper on Wednesday, on the eve of his expected visit.

"The two sides should jointly resist any attempt to interfere with and undermine the China-Russia friendship and mutual trust," he wrote.

The two nations are expected to sign numerous agreements to strengthen their "no limits" partnership during Jinping's four-day visit. China and Russia have grown closer since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, signified by deepening military and trade ties.

On Tuesday, the Kremlin praised China-Russia relations as a "genuine example" of cooperation, adding that they were "at their highest point".

The 9 May Victory Parade celebrates Nazi Germany's 1945 surrender to the Soviet Union during World War Two, remembered as "The Great Patriotic War" in Russia.

It is Russia's most important public holiday, and Putin has repeatedly invoked the victory to unite Russian society in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, drawing parallels between its offensive and the fight against the Nazis.

Kyiv and Europe have rejected Putin's narrative and the glorification of Russia's role in defeating Nazi Germany.

"These people are not liberators of Europe, they are occupiers and war criminals," Ukraine's foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

Yuriy Savchuk, director of Ukraine's War Museum, told AFP that World War I and II and "today's war" are all "conflicts we fought for the right to national existence, for the right of Ukrainians to establish themselves as a people".

Europe and Ukraine will mark VE Day on 8 May.

A previous 30-hour ceasefire over Easter repeatedly broke down, with both Russia and Ukraine accusing each other of multiple breaches.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, and currently controls about 20% of Ukraine's territory, including the southern Crimea peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014.