Chinese President Xi Jinping and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva are among the leaders set to attend the celebrations to commemorate the victory of the Soviet Union and its allies over Nazi Germany on May 9 in Moscow, according to several media reports.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council and the country’s former president, called Zelenskyy’s statement a “verbal provocation” in a post on his Telegram channel, according to Reuters.
Zelenskyy “understands that in the event of a real provocation on Victory Day, nobody will be able to guarantee that Kyiv will live to see May 10,” Medvedev threatened on his channel.
In the run-up to the celebrations, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a one-sided three-day ceasefire starting on May 8.
Kyiv referred to Putin’s truce announcement as a manipulation attempt, while calling for a ceasefire that would be “immediate, full, and unconditional, for at least 30 days.”
