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Russia may be planning a “Victory Day parade” in the devastated Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, says Petro Andryushchenko, an aide to the city mayor, quoted by the BBC.
According to him, Kostyantyn Ivashchenko, who has been appointed by Russian troops in charge of some parts of Mariupol already controlled, has received the order “to clear a part of the central area of the city from rubble and dead bodies, in order to be able to organize there a parade on May 9 ”. “Judging by the data we have, it seems that the invaders are planning to hold a kind of ‘victory carnival’ in Mariupol if ‘their special operation’ is successful,” said Andryushchenko. The good news, ail added, is that there are no vehicles or people in the city to hold such events.
The parade is estimated to coincide with Russia’s biggest public holiday, Victory Day, which celebrates every May 9 the triumph over Nazi Germany in World War II. The Russians have been focusing on Mariupol since the beginning of the occupation, it seems that the fate of the port city will be critical for the next phase of the war.
He is important to Moscow because he would secure control of a territory that connects its two fronts to the south and east. For Putin, his downfall would mark a moment of strategic victory after the failure in Kiev, but for Ukraine it would be a major loss for the country’s leadership, which has described Mariupol as the “heart of the war.” The Ukrainians there have put up fierce resistance, especially thanks to the so-called Azov Battalion, but the fighters defending the city say they are running out of ammunition, preparing for the worst.
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