Russia-Ukraine updates: Putin says war was ‘unleashed’ on Russia

The Russian president delivered his annual Victory Day speech.

More than a year after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, the countries are fighting for control of areas in eastern and southern Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's forces are readying a spring counteroffensive, but Putin appears to be preparing for a long and bloody war.

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Latest headlines:

Here's how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
May 04, 2023, 6:44 AM EDT

Kremlin blames US for drone attack in Moscow

Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman accused the United States of being involved in the drone attack on the Kremlin on Wednesday.

"We understand well that the decision about such terror attacks are taken not in Kyiv, but in Washington," Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a briefing. "Often targets are determined not in Kyiv but in Washington. They don't Kyiv the right everytime in choosing the means. In Washington they also clearly understand that we know that."

He added, "Without question. Such decisions -- the determining of targets and means -- are all dictated to Kyiv from Washington."

A view of a dome of the Senate Palace in the Moscow Kremlin, in Moscow, Russia, on Wednesday, May 3, 2023.
AP

Peskov said it was important that Washington understand the "danger" of such involvement in an attack.

-ABC News' Patrick Reevell

May 04, 2023, 12:08 AM EDT

Russia attacks Kyiv with drones and missiles; no casualties or injuries reported

Russian forces launched a "complex air strike" with "drones and missiles" on Kyiv early Thursday morning, the Kyiv City Military Administration said on Telegram.

The air raid siren went off in Kyiv for three and a half hours during the attack, the Kyiv City Military Administration said.

There were no casualties or injuries from the strikes.

"According to preliminary information, all the missiles and UAVs were destroyed," the Kyiv City Military Administration added.

This was the third attack on the capitol in four days, the administration said.

-ABC News' Natalia Kushniir

May 03, 2023, 5:11 PM EDT

US Embassy in Ukraine warns of 'ongoing heightened threat of missile attacks'

The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine sent an alert to Americans on Wednesday warning of an "ongoing heightened threat of missile attacks," including in Kyiv.

"In light of the recent uptick in strikes across Ukraine and inflammatory rhetoric from Moscow, the Department of State cautions U.S. citizens of an ongoing heightened threat of missile attacks, including in Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast," the alert stated.

The U.S. Embassy urged U.S. citizens to follow guidance from local authorities and to observe air alarms and shelter appropriately.

May 03, 2023, 2:43 PM EDT

At least 21 killed in Kherson region shelling: Ukrainian officials

At least 21 people were killed and 48 injured by shelling in the Kherson region on Wednesday, Ukrainian officials said, as the death toll continues to rise.

A railway station and market in the city of Kherson were hit in strikes, which occurred across the Kherson region in southern Ukraine, officials said.

Rubble in at a destroyed market in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, after a Russian strike, May 3, 2023.
Dina Pletenchuk/AFP via Getty Images

PHOTO: Firefighters stand in front of the carriage of a passenger train damaged following Russian strike in the southern Ukrainian town of Kherson, May 3, 2023.
Firefighters stand in front of the carriage of a passenger train damaged following Russian strike in the southern Ukrainian town of Kherson, May 3, 2023. Russian strikes on Ukraine's southern Kherson region killed 16 people on Wednesday, local prosecutors said as authorities introduced a curfew in the main city of Kherson starting Friday.
Dina Pletenchuk/AFP via Getty Images

"A railway station and a crossing, a house, a hardware store, a grocery supermarket, a gas station -- do you know what unites these places? The bloody trail that [Russia] leaves with its shells, killing civilians in Kherson and Kherson region," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Twitter.

All the victims were civilians, Zelenskyy said.

An ambulance was also damaged in the strikes, according to Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin.

"No military objects here. Just civilians, including children," Kostin said on Twitter.

A wounded woman sits outside a train station hit by a Russian military strike, in Kherson, Ukraine, May 3, 2023.
Carlos Barria/Reuters

At least one person was killed and three injured in the strike on the railway station, officials previously said.

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