Ukraine and Russia: what you need to know

Russia’s cruise missiles exploded in the air over Kyiv on Tuesday and its soldiers and tanks rolled through Red Square in a military parade, as Moscow marked the anniversary of victory over the Nazis with a new attack on Ukraine.

SYMBOLIC DAY

* President Vladimir Putin said Russians were united in a “sacred” fight with the West over Ukraine that would end in victory, and accused the United States and its allies of forgetting the Soviet triumph over the Nazis in World War Two.

* European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrived in Kyiv for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy after a new wave of Russian air strikes on the capital. The trip falls on the European Union’s Europe Day, which Ukraine adopted as its own on Monday.

CONFLICT

* Ukraine said its air defences shot down 23 of 25 missiles, fired chiefly at Kyiv, and there were no reported casualties. It was the second night in a row of major Russian air strikes and fifth so far this month.

* Russia’s mercenary Wagner forces have not yet received the ammunition promised by Moscow, the head of the group said, rowing back from comments hours earlier that initial data showed they had begun to get it.

* The United States plans as soon as Tuesday to announce a new $US1.2 billion ($A1.8 billion) military aid package for Ukraine that will include air defense systems, ammunition and funds for training, a US official said.

* Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he will lay out the need to defend Ukraine in the war with Russia when he meets Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, who has been critical of arming the Ukrainians.

* Ukrainian forces shelled the Belgorod region on Russia’s border with Ukraine on Monday, injuring at least five people and damaging houses and power lines, the region’s governor said.

GRAIN

* A high-level four-way meeting on the Black Sea grain deal will take place in Istanbul on May 10-11, the state-owned RIA news agency quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin as saying.

* The United Nations said no ships were inspected on Sunday or Monday under a deal allowing the safe Black Sea export of Ukraine grain, which Moscow has threatened to quit on May 18 over obstacles to its own grain and fertilizer exports.

INTERNATIONAL

* The European Union must not be intimidated by Moscow’s show-casing of military power but must speed up efforts to integrate its defence industries and the joint procurement of munitions for Kyiv, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said.

* The Group of Seven finance ministers will invite their counterpart from Ukraine to participate in a session on the global economy, Japan’s top financial diplomat Masato Kanda said.

* UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he sees no immediate possibility of talks to end the war in Ukraine as both sides are convinced they can win, according to an interview published by Spanish newspaper El Pais.