Putin Marks Victory Day With Little To Show

May 10, 2022 3:44 am

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin had no major new battlefield successes to tout on his country’s biggest patriotic holiday. Instead, he sought to justify the war again as a necessary response to what he portrayed as a hostile Ukraine. The Victory Day speech gave no sign of where the war is headed or how Russia will marshal more forces for a continuing war. Meanwhile, on the ground, the vital Black Sea port of Odesa came under repeated missile attack, including from hypersonic missiles. Intense fighting is raging in Ukraine’s east, and Russian forces are trying to end the resistance of Ukrainian defenders making their last stand at a steel plant in Mariupol.