In Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hosted European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, who said the European Union was doing everything it could “to erode Putin’s war machine and his revenues”. Multiple explosions were heard in the capital early on Tuesday, marking the fifth aerial attack on the city this month.

Putin delivered a speech at the customary Red Square military parade despite heightened security concerns, accusing his enemies of seeking to dismember Russia. Authorities cancelled or scaled back plans for events marking the holiday and banned the use of drones after an incident at the Kremlin last week.

Key developments

• Putin vows victory in Ukraine at scaled-back Red Square parade
• Putin’s Victory Day masks reality in Ukraine: Balance of Power
• European spies piece together strategy behind Russian abuses
• China warns of ‘strong’ reaction if EU sanctions its companies
• Russia’s oil flows reach new high as output cuts fail to show

US, allies dismantle Russian ‘Snake’ malware spying operation  

The US and allied countries have disrupted a wide-ranging Russian hacking operation that spied on its adversaries over some 20 years, the Justice Department announced.

Law enforcement agencies penetrated a global network of computers infected with malicious software that the US said Russia’s federal intelligence service used to spy on computers in at least 50 countries, including governments belonging to Nato, the Justice Department said on Tuesday.

Read More: US, allies dismantle Russian ‘Snake’ malware spying operation

EU’s Von der Leyen backs ‘dedicated’ tribunal for Russian crimes  

The commission chief endorsed the creation of a “dedicated tribunal for the crime of aggression” to address Russian actions in Ukraine and said the support of the international community was essential.

“Justice means accountability for Russian war crimes,” Von der Leyen said in a speech during a visit to Kyiv. She didn’t specify the exact format of the tribunal or where it should be located. The EU is already working to set up an international centre to help collect and analyse evidence related to such crimes.

Pentagon package includes air defence and ammunition

The US Defence Department’s $1.2-billion package to Kyiv includes air-defence systems, munitions, equipment to integrate Western systems, satellite-imagery services and ammunition, it said in a statement.

The package “underscores the continued US commitment to meeting Ukraine’s most urgent requirements by committing critical near-term capabilities”, the statement said.

Russia’s oil flows reach new high despite output cut threat 

Russian crude oil flows to international markets show little sign of ebbing even as Moscow’s threatened output cut stretches into a third month.

Four-week average seaborne shipments, which smooth out some of the volatility in weekly numbers, rose in the period to 5 May to the highest since Bloomberg began tracking them in detail at the start of 2022. With almost all of Russia’s crude going to China and India, volumes to Asia also hit a new high.

Ukraine, EU to open coordination platform

Ukraine agreed to set up a special platform with the EU to coordinate and monitor problems pertaining to Kyiv’s agricultural exports to the bloc, Zelensky said alongside Von der Leyen. Restrictions on Ukraine’s exports imposed by EU neighbours “strengthen the capabilities of the aggressor country”, he said.

“We propose to start a consultative group to monitor problematic issues and refrain from any trade decisions without consulting Ukraine,” the Ukrainian leader said. “The immediate priority is that grain transit goes seamlessly” and close cooperation between different stakeholders is required, Von der Leyen said.

Read more: EU aims to target nations through which Russia evades sanctions

Prigozhin calls Russian bureaucrats ‘enemy’ 

Wagner mercenary group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said his forces won’t pull out of the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut for now, even though they’ve received only about a 10th of the ammunition they’re seeking from the Russian Defence Ministry.

“Our enemy isn’t the Ukrainian military today but Russian bureaucrats,” Prigozhin said in a video posted on his Telegram channel, accusing the Kremlin’s army chief of intervening personally to cut ammunition supplies.

Prigozhin has threatened several times to withdraw from Bakhmut in clashes with the Defence Ministry over support for his troops, who’ve been fighting there since late last year. A regular Russian army regiment had fled the battlefield, weakening a 3km section of Wagner’s flank, he said.

China’s exports to Russia hit record

China’s exports to Russia hit a record in April, jumping 153% from a year earlier to $9.6-billion in a sign of increasingly close economic relations.

Firms in China imported $9.6-billion worth of oil, gas and other goods, taking total trade to the second-highest level on record — some $19-billion, just shy of March’s peak.

McConnell says Congress will keep funding Kyiv 

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell predicted US funding to support Ukraine’s military would continue to flow despite growing calls from isolationist members of his own party to reduce or end aid to Kyiv.

Read more: McConnell predicts Congress will keep funding Ukraine’s defence

“I do think that we have enough support within Congress to sustain this for a good deal longer,” McConnell said. “All the leadership in the House and Senate in my party is very much in favour of defeating the Russians.” The Kentucky Republican also called on President Joe Biden to accelerate shipments of high-tech weaponry to Ukraine before an expected spring offensive to retake territory seized by Russia.

Scholz responds to Putin in Strasbourg 

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz used a visit to the European Parliament in Strasbourg to respond to Putin, saying the EU’s “peaceful path” represented a “clear contrast to the sabre-rattling parade that we see in Moscow today”.

“The Russian aggression against Ukraine is also an attack on the values and principles that have guided us since the founding of the EU,” Scholz told reporters after talks with Parliament President Roberta Metsola. “Together we will support Ukraine as long as it is necessary,” he said, before heading into the chamber for a debate with legislators.

Russia says US isn’t engaging on jailed reporter

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov accused the US of rejecting dialogue over the case of jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, the state news service Tass reported. The Biden administration was using only tactics of pressure to try to secure Gershkovich’s release, Ryabkov said.

Gershkovich is being held in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo prison on allegations of espionage after he was arrested in March in the city of Yekaterinburg in Russia’s Urals region. He’s the first US reporter to be detained on accusations of spying since the Cold War, a charge that carries a 20-year maximum prison term in Russia. He denies the allegations.

EU seeking more details on China peace drive

The EU is still trying to get more information from Beijing on its recently announced peace delegation to Ukraine and other unspecified countries, the bloc’s top envoy in China said on Tuesday.

“We are trying to talk to the Chinese government about where they are sending a special envoy and what are their intentions,” EU ambassador Jorge Toledo said at a press conference in Beijing to mark Europe Day. “But we still have no news.”

China announced late last month it would send a delegation to Ukraine and other countries led by Li Hui, who was Beijing’s ambassador to Moscow for 10 years.

Putin seeks to cement support for war 

“A real war has once again been unleashed against our Motherland,” Putin said in a brief speech at the start of Tuesday’s parade.

Seeking to cement public support for his attack on Ukraine, he claimed troops at the front have the fate of Russia in their hands. The display of military equipment this year was considerably smaller than in the past, with only one tank — a World War 2 vintage T-34 — and no flyover by warplanes and helicopters.

Zelensky discusses demining Ukraine 

Zelensky held meetings Monday with his officials to discuss how to deal with mines and unexploded ordnance which he said affect “more than 170,000 square kilometres” of Ukrainian territory.

“They say it will take decades to deal with such a threat,” the Ukrainian leader said in his evening address. “We have to do it much faster,” he added, saying Ukraine would “cooperate with everyone in the world who has the experience, who has the technology, who has the financial capacity to support us to make Ukraine clear of Russian mines again”. DM