Kyiv can’t guarantee safety of foreign leaders on May 9 in Moscow, Zelenskyy says

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his government could not guarantee the safety of foreign delegations visiting Moscow to attend the Victory Day Parade next Friday, marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.

“Our position is very simple for all countries traveling to Russia on May 9: We cannot be held responsible for what happens on the territory of the Russian Federation,” Zelenskyy told reporters, according to a report by Ukrainian news agency Interfax on Saturday.

“They provide you with security; therefore, we won’t give you any guarantees. Because we don’t know what Russia will do these days,” Zelenskyy was quoted as saying. He also warned that Russia could orchestrate provocations, including “arson, bombings and so on, only to blame us.”

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.”