Moscow’s 'Victory Day' Ends Amid Tensions and Tight Security
Chinese President Xi Jinping attends as VVIP guest alongside 26 other world leaders
Russia has marked the 80th anniversary of the former Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi German forces in World War II, with a military parade attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping. Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke at the May 9 event which also featured military units from 13 countries, including China, taking part alongside Russian troops. The parade took place after three years of Russia’s devastating war in Ukraine. In his speech, Putin said that “truth and justice” were on Russia’s side and that the entire country supported its “special military operation” - SCMP
China and Russia have formed a unified front against the United States in a rebuff to speculation that US President Donald Trump could divide the two neighbours. After talks between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday, the two countries slammed the “hegemony” and “unilateralism” of Trump’s America-centric foreign policy to shake up the global order. They pledged to jointly defend the post-war multipolar world order by strengthening bilateral cooperation and pushing back against US “containment”.
This year, 27 world leaders attended the event - compared to just nine last year and zero in 2022 - the year of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. At least two leaders had heir flights diverted due to closures of airspace by countries friendly with Kyiv.
A notable absence was North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. However, Putin on Friday greeted a delegation of North Korean officers after hosting the military parade. “Thank you very much to all your fighters, your heroes. Best wishes,” Putin was overheard telling members of the North Korean delegation on Red Square. The Russian president was also seen embracing a North Korean lieutenant general adorned with medals - Moscow Times
There was little mention by host Vladimir Putin of the war in Ukraine, other than a passing line about the so-called Special Military Operation - maybe because it’s inflicted more casualties on Russia than all the wars it has fought since 1945.
Germany's new Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said he believes an agreement for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine is on the cards and could happen within the next few days, but that "the ball is now exclusively in Moscow’s court…We now have a big chance after today, which is celebrated in Russia as Victory Day, for a ceasefire in Ukraine," Merz said, speaking alongside European Parliament President Roberta Metsola on his first trip to Brussels on Friday. He then reiterated the same belief in a separate press conference with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the alliance's headquarters. "There’s a chance over this weekend that it will come to a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine,” Merz emphasised. “Ukraine agrees to it. The US started this and suggested it, the big European states explicitly agreed to it. I can say that this is a good thing for the entire European Union and for NATO," he added. "After the coming weekend and with the start of next week if a longer weapons ceasefire will be realised, and then creating the space for a dialogue for a lasting peace in Ukraine….This is a very precise and straightforward test case for the seriousness of the willingness of the Russian president to really achieve peace in Ukraine,” Merz concluded - Euronews
The European Union's latest proposal for the next round of sanctions on Russia -- the 17th package since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine over three years ago -- might just be its weakest yet. Presented by the European Commission earlier this week to the 27 EU member and seen by RFE/RL, contains no hard-hitting economic measures against the Kremlin. Instead, it features more asset freezes and visa bans on various individuals and entities, mostly Russian citizens and companies involved in the arms industry. It also includes banning 98 more ships from Moscow's so-called shadow fleet from being serviced at EU ports, bringing the total of ships on the list to 250. And lastly, it imposes export restrictions on 35 companies, most of which are Russian but others are Kazakh, Serbian, Turkish, and Uzbek. The goal, according to EU officials RFE/RL has spoken to, is to adopt the proposal when the bloc's foreign ministers meet on May 20. The club wants to show that Russia's numerous attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure in recent weeks shouldn't go unpunished, and approval is also likely to be swift -- the new measures are so uncontroversial that even a sanctions skeptic like Hungary would be ready to give a ready thumbs-up - RFE/RL
Six Chinese firms are on the list. The most interesting of these are Poly Technologies, which has provided components for Russian military helicopters, and Skywalker Technology, a producer of the Gerbera drone that Brussels says "has been used by the Russian military in Ukraine, in particular as a decoy drone to overwhelm Ukrainian defense systems."
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is introducing a series of new sanctions on Russia, targeting the country's so-called "shadow fleet," up to 100 vessels which have been carrying cargo in defiance of the sanctions. Starmer's office said the sanctions will target vessels that have carried carried cargo worth more than $24 billion (€21.3 billion) since the beginning of last year. Speaking about the sanctions, Starmer said Russia's threat to the UK's national security "cannot be underestimated," and that his country will do "everything in our power to destroy" the shadow fleet's operation.
Separately, Ukraine has imposed sanctions on 58 Russian citizens and 74 foreign companies, according to a presidential decree. Most of them are Russian companies linked to the military-industrial complex. However, the list also includes one based in Hong Kong, three Iranian companies, and three Uzbek companies. Smart Kit Technology Limited is from Hong Kong, while Alvand Motorbuilding Industries Company, Bonyan Danesh Shargh Private Company and Pishro Sanat Aseman Sharif Private Company are registered in Iran - DW
The morning after being elected the 267th Pope, Pope Leo XIV celebrates Mass with the Cardinal electors, reminding them that "we are to bear witness to our joyful faith in Christ" while warning that where faith is lacking, life loses meaning. "We are called to bear witness to our joyful faith in Christ the Saviour..." Pope Leo XIV gave this heartfelt reminder during his first Mass as Pope on Friday, with the Cardinal electors and other Cardinals present in Rome, in the Sistine Chapel, the exact site where the electors, with at least a two-thirds majority, elected him as Pope on the fourth ballot on Thursday afternoon. In his homily, the new Pope called for always better cultivating a personal relationship with Christ; and he insisted that, without faith, life lacks meaning. However, the new US-born Pope began with a few words in English, in which he thanked the Cardinal electors for their trust in him. "I want to repeat the words from the Responsorial Psalm: 'I will sing a new song to the Lord, because He has done marvels,' and indeed, not just with me but with all of us.” - Vatican News
Blasts rang out across Indian-administered Kashmir and the city of Amritsar in neighbouring Punjab state, with the Indian military saying they were shooting down drones, while heavy cross-border artillery exchanges have resumed in the worst fighting with Pakistan in nearly three decades. Pakistan’s military says there will be “no de-escalation” with India until it has responded fully to India’s strikes on Wednesday. Pakistan’s information minister says his country has engaged only in a “defensive response so far” to India’s attacks on his country, as Pakistan’s military said India launched attack drones into Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least two civilians. At least 48 people have been reported killed so far – 32 of them in Pakistan – since India launched missiles on Wednesday that it said targeted “terrorist camps” in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Pakistan retaliated with a barrage of artillery strikes. The clashes follow escalating tension between the two nuclear-armed countries since a deadly attack in Indian-administered Kashmir’s Pahalgam on April 22, which India blamed on Pakistan. Pakistan has denied any involvement - Al Jazeera
Recent data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis shows a sharp dip in travel spending in the United States. According to a report released by the bureau on Tuesday, travel decreased by $1.3 billion in March. Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail also reports that the export of travel services, a measure of how much tourists spend while in the United States, saw one of the largest three-month drops in the past 25 years. The dip is only dwarfed by the effects of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the travel market and the COVID-19 pandemic. The Trump administration’s policies on tariffs and immigration have been widely attributed as the cause of the market plummet. Canadians have also notably been boycotting trips to the U.S. in opposition of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on the country and threats to make it the 51st state. “Tourism’s doing very well,” Trump said in an April 30 interview with ABC News. “We’re doing very well. We’re doing very well. Wait till you see the real numbers come out in about, in six months from now, wait till you see the numbers.” - Daily Beast
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