As the holiday commemorating the Soviet Union's World War II victory over Nazi Germany approaches, cities across Ukraine are preparing for an expected increase in Russian attacks and officials have urged residents to heed air raid warnings.
"These symbolic dates are to the Russian aggressor like red to a bull," Ukraine's first deputy interior minister, Yevhen Yenin, said.
"While the entire civilised world remembers the victims of terrible wars on these days, the Russian Federation wants parades and is preparing to dance over bones in Mariupol."
There is growing speculation that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to finish the battle for the besieged port city so he can present a triumph to the Russian people in time for Monday's Victory Day, the biggest patriotic holiday on the Russian calendar.
The Kremlin said on Friday it did not know whether there would be a parade in Mariupol on May 9, but that the time for celebrating Victory Day there would come.
"The time will come to mark Victory Day in Mariupol," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
German Chancellor invited to make 'powerful' May 9 visit
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to take a "powerful step" and visit the capital Kyiv on May 9.
Speaking via a translator to Britain's Chatham House think tank, Mr Zelenskyy launched a broadside at Russia, particularly over Mariupol, where Kyiv says there are still civilians hiding in a ruined steel plant that is under siege.
Dozens more civilians were rescued on Friday (local time) from the tunnels under the Azovstal plant where Ukrainian fighters have been making their last stand to prevent Moscow's complete takeover of the strategically important port city.
Mr Zelenskyy offered the invitation to Mr Scholz after the two countries' relations were strained when the German President was stopped from visiting Kyiv last month.
"He's invited, the invitation is open, it has been for some time now," Mr Zelenskyy said on a video call.
"He's invited to come to Ukraine, he can make this very powerful political step to come here on the 9th of May, to Kyiv. I am not explaining the significance, I think you're cultured enough to understand why."
Ukrainian officials have warned residents to be vigilant and heed air raid warnings, saying the risk of massive shelling had increased with Victory Day approaching.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said authorities would reinforce street patrols in the capital.
A curfew was also going into effect in Ukraine's southern Odesa region, which was the target of two missile attacks on Friday.
The Ukrainian military's general staff said on Friday that its forces repelled 11 attacks in the Donbas region and destroyed tanks and armoured vehicles, further frustrating Putin's ambitions after his abortive attempt to seize Kyiv. Russia did not acknowledge the losses.
Zelenskyy tells of 'catastrophic' lack of medicine
Mr Zelenskyy in an earlier address described a "catastrophic" lack of access to medical services and medicine in areas of the country under Russian occupation.
In those areas, Mr Zelenskyy said almost no treatment was available for those suffering from cancer and insulin for diabetics was difficult to find or non-existent.
"The situation with access to medical services and medicines is just catastrophic," the President said in a speech delivered at the "Brave Ukraine" charity event in the UK.
"Even the simplest medications are missing."
He also said antibiotics were in short supply.
"These are the consequences of the Russian occupation of a part of our land," he said.
Mr Zelenskyy described destroyed or damaged infrastructure adding that during the course of the war, the Russian military had fired more than 2,000 missiles into Ukraine.
"If we take only the medical infrastructure, to date, Russian troops have destroyed or damaged almost 400 health facilities," he said.
"These are hospitals, maternity hospitals, outpatient clinics."
Mr Zelenskyy said Ukraine would need up to $US600 billion ($845 billion) to "rebuild what the Russian army destroyed" in the course of the invasion.
War crimes evidence
Amnesty International said on Friday there was compelling evidence that Russian troops committed war crimes, including extrajudicial executions of civilians, when they occupied an area outside Ukraine's capital in February and March.
Civilians also suffered abuses such as "reckless shootings and torture" at the hands of Russian forces during their failed onslaught on Kyiv in the early stages of the invasion launched by the Kremlin on February 24, the rights group said in a report.
"In a rare, even historic move, Amnesty International denounced Russia's unlawful use of force as a violation of the United Nations charter and an act of aggression — a crime under international law," Amnesty secretary-general Agnes Callamard told a news conference in Kyiv.
"The evidence we have gathered … implicates Russian military forces in serious violations of international law, including extrajudicial killings, disproportionate and indiscriminate attacks against civilians, including in densely populated areas," Mr Callamard said.
Russia denies its forces committed abuses.
Ukrainian authorities say they are investigating more than 9,000 potential war crimes by Russian troops.
The International Criminal Court is also looking into alleged war crimes.
The Amnesty report is the latest to document alleged war crimes committed by Russian forces when they occupied an area north-west of Kyiv, including the town of Bucha, where Ukrainian authorities say more than 400 civilians were killed.
Amnesty said it had documented 22 cases of unlawful killing by Russian forces — "most of which were apparent extrajudicial executions" — in Bucha and nearby areas.
Moscow withdrew its troops in early April.
Russian court orders arrest of top journalist
A Moscow court on Friday ordered the arrest in absentia of Alexander Nevzorov, a prominent Russian journalist accused of spreading false information about what Moscow calls its special military operation in Ukraine.
The court said Nevzorov, who has been put on Russia's international wanted list, would be detained for two months if he ever returns to Russia or is extradited there.
Nevzorov's wife wrote on Instagram in March that she and her husband were in Israel, but that the couple had no plans to move there permanently.
Investigators had opened a case against Nevzorov in March for posting on social media that Russia's armed forces deliberately shelled a maternity hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
Ukraine and its Western allies condemned the hospital attack as an atrocity. Russia denied bombing the hospital, accusing Kyiv of a "staged provocation".
Nevzorov, who has more than 1.8 million subscribers on his YouTube channel, called the investigation against him ridiculous and wrote an open letter to Russia's top investigator calling on him to close the case.
Eight days after invading Ukraine on February 24, Russia passed a law providing jail terms of up to 15 years for those convicted of intentionally spreading what it called "fake" news about Russia's military.
ABC/wires
