Russian Drone Strike Suggests More to Come

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Russian drone strikes in Ukraine ahead of Moscow’s Victory Day celebrations, Syria’s welcome back into the Arab League, and Venezuelan immigrants struck and killed by an SUV near a shelter in Texas.

Russia launched dozens of Iranian-made kamikaze drones in Ukraine on Monday, including 36 targeting Kyiv—marking yet another large-scale assault on the capital this month. According to the Ukrainian military, Kyiv’s air defenses successfully shot down every attack drone in the city, but at least five people were injured by falling debris. Local reports indicate that in the past 24 hours, Russia also fired missiles toward the cities of Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Odesa.

Russia’s latest attack targeted civilian apartment buildings in Kyiv and a Red Cross food warehouse in Odesa, where at least three people were injured. A runway at Kyiv International Airport was also damaged. The drone campaign—Moscow’s largest in months—came on the eve of Victory Day, a Russian national holiday that celebrates the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has often invoked rhetoric that calls back to World War II to justify Moscow’s actions. Putin has called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky—who is Jewish—a Nazi, Russian state media has advocated for a “solution to the Ukrainian question,” and the Kremlin has promoted so-called denazification in Ukraine.

“The Kremlin’s annihilationist propaganda is giving Russian troops a clear conscience for killing Ukrainian civilians,” journalist Alexey Kovalev argued in Foreign Policy last year.

Regarding Monday’s attack, Zelensky said: “Unfortunately, evil has returned. Just as evil rushed into our towns and villages [during World War II], so it does now. As it killed our people then, so it does now.” Moscow’s Victory Day celebrations on Tuesday are expected to be scaled back due to Russia’s fears of a Ukrainian counterstrike.

As Ukrainian military leaders prepare for their country’s counterstrike, the rest of the nation remains on high alert. On Sunday, Russian forces ordered the evacuations of 18 settlements in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, including one town near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which Russian forces have held for a year.

The evacuation has sparked panic among local residents and nearby troops; the International Atomic Energy Agency warned of a “severe nuclear accident” if fighting ignites around the nuclear power station, which is Europe’s largest.

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Monday, May 8, to Tuesday, May 9: United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres meets with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov visits Putin in Moscow.

Tuesday, May 9: Iran and Saudi Arabia reopen their respective embassies in Riyadh and Tehran.

Tuesday, May 9, to Thursday, May 11: Indonesia hosts the 42nd Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit.

Wednesday, May 10: NATO chiefs of defense meet in Brussels.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov hosts talks with his Turkish, Syrian, and Iranian counterparts.

Thursday, May 11: The United States ends its Title 42 immigration policy.

Brussels hosts the European Defence and Security Summit.

Thursday, May 11, to Sunday, May 14: Japan hosts G-7 ministers’ meetings.

Friday, May 12: U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Sánchez.

Saturday, May 13: Mauritania holds parliamentary elections.

Sunday, May 14: Turkey holds presidential and legislative elections.

Thailand holds general elections.

Normalizing ties? The Arab League is welcoming Syria back into the fold after more than a decade away. The then-21 nation bloc readmitted the country on Sunday, reflecting a regional push to normalize ties with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. At the announcement, Arab League members called on Assad to end Syria’s civil war, which began in 2011 and has killed as many as 610,000 people. (The Arab League ejected Syria that year for Assad’s deadly crackdown on political dissidents.)

The decision to readmit Syria does not signal unanimous support for Assad in the Middle East. Qatar said it hoped the move would force Assad’s regime to back concrete change and “address the roots of the crisis,” and Jordan reiterated that Syria must make a serious effort to curb drug smuggling. (Jordan is a top destination and main transit route for illicit substances from Syria.) Meanwhile, Russian officials hailed the decision; Putin has long been a key ally of Assad’s.

Migrants killed in Texas. At least eight people were killed and 10 injured in Brownsville, Texas, on Sunday when a man drove his vehicle into a crowd at a bus stop outside a homeless shelter hosting migrants. The victims were all Venezuelan immigrants, including some who had just crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. A suspect has been arrested and charged with manslaughter, aggravated assault, and reckless driving; investigators are still determining if the attack was intentional.

Migrant crossing numbers at the U.S.-Mexico border have surged in the past few days as the United States prepares to lift a Trump-era policy known as Title 42 on Thursday. The immigration order allows U.S. officials to expel unauthorized migrants to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Brownsville, in the Rio Grande Valley, has seen as many as 1,500 migrants arrive each day in the last week.

Heating up. More than 100 wildfires burned across Alberta, Canada, on Sunday—with 31 fires “out of control,” said Christie Tucker, the province’s wildlife information unit manager. Around 29,000 people have been evacuated, and the full extent of property and environmental damage remains unknown. A province-wide state of emergency was first issued on Saturday.

The number of wildfires worldwide has skyrocketed in the last few years amid rising global temperatures and worsening droughts. Deadly blazes scorched Chile in January and February, at least 408 wildfires have destroyed California land this year, and bushfires shut down Australian schools in March.

After 276 days in orbit, an experimental Chinese aircraft returned to Earth on Monday, according to Chinese state media. Despite its long trip, international actors remain clueless as to what the spacecraft was doing up there this whole time. Beijing, meanwhile, is keeping mum.