Ukraine staged devastating new overnight strikes targeting Moscow and surrounding Russian regions. They came as Vladimir Putin’s foreign guests arrived for his massive military parade on Friday, May 9, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of WW2 in Europe. One target hit by Ukrainian drones was Kubinka military airfield, west of the city, used for aircraft taking part in the scheduled Red Square flypast.

Russian MiG-29 and Su-27 fighter jets are based at this airfield, as is Putin’s aerobatic team, as well as a strike base for attacks on Ukraine. A location, possibly storage warehouses, close to another airfield – Shaikovka in Kaluga region, 140 miles southwest of Moscow, base of long-range Tu-22 strategic nuclear bombers – was reported ablaze. NASA’s fire monitoring satellites recorded fires at both sites.

It was the third day of Ukrainian strikes on Putin’s capital and surrounding regions, and again caused massive disruption, with the city’s four main airports closed, and flights diverted and cancelled – after the Kremlin’s refusal to agree to a month-long ceasefire offered by Kyiv.

Hundreds of flights were impacted, with passengers complaining of a “nightmare” at Moscow’s airports. Passengers on a Dubai-Moscow flight forced to land in Kazan were told they were being held in a hotel for an “indefinite” period due to the attacks.

Vnukovo airport – used by Putin and top officials – was in chaos with 50-plus flights delayed. Sheremetyevo airport cancelled multiple flights due to the drone swarms.

There was also a huge internet disruption across European Russia – apparently as the authorities jammed signals desperately seeking to counter Ukrainian kamikaze drones.

Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin claimed 17 drones targeting the city had been downed, with unconfirmed reports saying the city had been struck. In one of Ukraine’s fiercest offensive nights of the entire three-year war, its armed forces hit two Russian strategic defence plants in Saransk, some 320 miles southeast of Moscow – including Optic Fibre Systems JSC, the only fibre optic manufacturing plant in Russia.

Thick black smoke was seen pouring from the plant, which is vital to the production of hi-tech Russian military drones.

Another defence target was also ablaze more than one mile away. Reports said KhimMash was on fire – a key chemical engineering plant, producing equipment for rocket propellant production and components for military rocket and missile systems.

All schools, universities and kindergartens were closed in the city today, and a ban was imposed on photos, videos and information about the consequences of the attacks – a sign of the havoc wrought by the Ukrainian strikes.

Two key military plants were also hit in Tula – 110 miles south of Moscow. Smoke was seen pouring from the Design Bureau of Instrument Engineering, which develops high-precision guided weapons for Putin’s war machine.

According to reports, Scientific and Production Association SPLAV, which produced multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS), heavy flamethrower systems (HFS), ammunition for them, and unguided and guided aircraft missiles, was also hit. This produces Grad, Smersh, Uragan, and the latest Tornado-S systems.

As Ukraine hit military targets, Russia struck civilians in Kyiv and elsewhere in Ukraine. In the capital, two people died and eight were wounded in strikes which included deadly Iskander missiles.

Four children were reported as being among the injured. In the Sumy border region, Russian strikes killed three people, including one child, and left 11 injured, including 5 children.

Four were wounded in Russian strikes on Zaporizhzhia. Ukrainian war commentator Denis Kazansky said Putin’s strikes came as the dictator prepares to commemorate Victory Day, marking the defeat of Hitler.

“Russian drones have been attacking sleeping people in Kyiv all night,” he said. “Residential buildings have been attacked in different parts of the city, leaving at least two people dead. Victory madness in its purest form.

“All of Russia is covered with posters about the victory, while the Russians….are killing Kyiv residents in their apartments. They are doing everything to make Victory Day associated with blood, murders, and new war crimes. The day after tomorrow, leaders of different countries will come to Putin in Moscow and shake his hand…”

Putin is due to start a three-day unilateral ceasefire at midnight on Wednesday, but Ukraine has pledged a 30-day truce if Russia agrees.= Ukraine had rejected Putin’s move, and Russia refused to stop the war for a month, a demand also made by the US.

Internet disruptions were reported in Russia—in Moscow and St Petersburg, as well as the regions of Yaroslavl, Tver, Nizhny Novgorod, Tula, Leningrad, Kaluga, and Kursk—as Russians paid the price of Putin’s refusal to agree to a month-long ceasefire.

Fighterbomber Telegram channel admitted the strike on Kubinka military airfield, stating: “The [Ukrainians] are trying to spoil our parade and are hitting the locations of personnel and equipment – participants in the parade.

“At night, a drone attacked the Kubinka airfield, where our aerobatic teams Russian Knights and Swifts are based.”

Up to 29 world leaders – mostly from repressive regimes – were arriving in Russia for Putin’s commemoration of the end of the WW2, with China’s Xi Jinping the most senior guest. It was unclear if any of those arriving were delayed by the Ukrainian attacks.

Dictator of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro was seen in footage arriving in Moscow. But Serbian leader Aleksandar Vučić was denied permission by Lithuania and Latvia to overfly their territory en route to Moscow.

Meanwhile, a giant explosion 3,400 miles east of Moscow hit a mining and processing plant in Neryungri. Four people were injured in the coal processing plant in Russia’s coldest region, Yakutia.

The cause was not immediately disclosed.