Moscow shuts down airports and mobile signals as Victory Day parade looms

Russia shut down airports and temporarily cut mobile internet access for many users in Moscow on Tuesday, as it tightened security ahead of the 9 May Victory Day parade marking the defeat of Nazi Germany. The parade – Russia’s foremost national celebration – has already been scaled back and will proceed without heavy military hardware for the first time in nearly two decades, amid fears of long-range Ukrainian drone strikes. Ukraine has recently demonstrated its ability to penetrate Moscow’s dense air defence systems: on Monday morning, a drone struck a high-rise apartment building just a few miles from the Kremlin. In what appeared to be an effort to shield the military parade, Moscow earlier this month declared a unilateral ceasefire with Ukraine for 8-9 May and warned of a “massive missile strike” on central Kyiv if it were violated. Ukraine dismissed the proposal as a cynical ploy to protect the parade from drone attacks. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, responded by announcing a separate truce from 6 May, saying it was “not serious” to expect Kyiv to observe a ceasefire tied to a Russian military holiday. Speaking during a visit to Armenia, Zelenskyy said Moscow feared that “drones may buzz over Red Square”. Security in the Russian capital has been visibly tightened in the run-up to the parade, with checkpoints set up across the city and snipers and machine-gun crews deployed on Kremlin towers. Residents on Tuesday woke to dead mobile signals across Moscow. …