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The tragic reality of Russia’s bloody war on Ukraine took centre stage in a rather unusual setting recently – the Eurovision song contest. The embattled nation was supposed to host the event but due to the ongoing and deadly conflict, it was relocated to Liverpool. Ukrainian performers not only attended the ever-popular show but made sure to use the opportunity to spread their message to the huge TV audience. Among them was Kyiv rapper Otoy, who lost his own brother on the frontline. The 24-year-old, whose real name is Vyacheslav Drofa, performed at Eurovision alongside other Ukrainian musicians, bringing awareness of the atrocities of the invasion to millions. He described the “adrenaline and emotion” coursing through his body as he took to the stage earlier this month, telling The Independent: “I have never felt such a level of solidarity and support for the Ukrainian people as I did in Liverpool. “That level of understanding and emotion at Eurovision – it was crazy. Everybody was with you and your country. It felt like, ‘We support you because you are going through hell’.” Otoy is no stranger to that hell, having received tragic news in March that a body discovered in Ukraine was his brother, who had gone missing the previous April while defending besieged Mariupol. “I don’t even know what I felt,” said Otoy. “When you’re hoping for a year that he’s alive and can’t find anything, then realise his body is in Kyiv and you should identify it. “In fact, this isn’t even a body – it’s a head, a bit of a leg, part of a hand, little bits of bones. We could only identify him through his teeth. It feels really bad, the worst emotions I had in my life actually.” The rapper’s music reflects his fury and he accuses Russia of trying to “destroy” Ukraine and its culture. “I feel a lot of anger inside of me because of the things the Russians are doing,” he said. “They already crossed all the red lines, there’s no way back, we should fight till the end. “If we stop now then give it 10 years and they’ll come back with a bigger army and then they’ll invade Poland, which is a member of Nato. We’re fighting a worldwide evil. “The reason we’re doing it is we are really tired of that Russian b******t – trying to destroy Ukraine, our culture, our musicians.” Not only has the 24-year-old tackled the war through his music, he volunteered on the frontline last summer by salvaging the bodies of dead soldiers and bringing them back to their families. He is also fundraising to provide military supplies to Ukrainian soldiers for the country’s planned counteroffensive. His day job is in IT, working as a UX director at a company that created RSFY, a mobile tracker of Russian army losses. The company also developed the app TacticMedAid, which provides medical instructions for people if they input their symptoms after getting injured. Otoy juggles all of these roles during Moscow’s frequent attacks on the Ukrainian capital. “It feels like a surreal dream I live in,” he said. “Every time when there’s some air or rocket attacks, or shelling, it feels like this type of nightmare. I think, give me a couple of minutes, then everything will be OK – but I never wake up because that has continued for more than a year.” He is hopeful the war will come to an end his year but says the road to recovery after that will not be easy. “It will be a hard time – receiving bodies back, lots of funerals, lots of rebuilding cities, people returning to their houses and realising there’s no home because it will have been destroyed,” he said. “After the war, I don’t know what people will do with their emotions, I’m really scared of this.” Otoy said he will continue to make music and apps when the conflict is over, and had nothing but praise for his countrymen and women as they continue to fight against Putin’s forces. “The only thing that helps me feel alive and some kind of emotions is the process of making music and to know that millions of Ukrainians will use the IT applications I work on,” he said. “Those are two things I’ll be doing until the end of my days. “I’m feeling proud about Ukrainians. People are staying in their country, for their homeland, until the end, until their last breath.” Read More Ukraine-Russia war – live: Don’t turn a blind eye to Putin’s invasion, Zelensky warns Arab leaders Britain says Russia will ‘pay the price’ for Ukraine invasion as fresh wave of sanctions unveiled Ukraine's president begins visit to Saudi Arabia, aims to enhance ties with Arab world The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

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After Russia attacked Ukraine with its latest barrage of cruise missiles, Vladimir Putin made an angry speech to mark Victory Day in Moscow, hitting out at Western countries for starting what he claims is a “real war” against Russia. However, in a sign of the toll his invasion of Ukraine has taken on Russia’s forces, the annual military parade across Red Square was pared back, as Moscow throws manpower and weaponry at the frontlines following an underwhelming winter campaign and an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive. “Today, civilisation is once again at a decisive turning point,” Mr Putin said as he again sought to defend his invasion of Ukraine by painting Russia as having been cornered by “Western global elites”. “A real war has been unleashed against our motherland,” he said. The most abiding image of the parade, which took place as part of the annual commemorations of the Soviet victory over the Nazis in the Second World War, was of a single T-34 Soviet-era tank rolling down the road, near the start of what is usually a show of Russian military might in an annual event that has become a centrepiece of Putin’s time in office. The T-34 has traditionally opened the display, but it is usually accompanied by more modern battle tanks, such as the T-14 Armata and the T-74, both of which have been used in Ukraine. The parade included some 8,000 troops – the lowest number since 2008. Even in 2020, the year of the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the procession featured some 13,000 soldiers, and in 2022, 11,000 troops took part. The overall number of vehicles could be measured in dozens, while 2021’s event is believed to have featured close to 200. Western nations have said that Russia has had to raid its stockpiles of tanks for the frontline, but the lack of modern hardware on display was stark. There was also no flypast of military jets, and the event lasted less than the usual hour. “This is weak. There are no tanks,” said Yelena Orlova, watching the vehicles rumble down Moscow’s Novy Arbat Avenue after leaving Red Square. “We’re upset, but that’s all right; it will be better in the future.” Moscow has said that the events were scaled back as a result of security concerns over what it has claimed was a attempted Ukrainian strike on the Kremlin last week. The accusation was met with scepticism by Ukraine’s Western allies, and a flat denial from Kyiv. Analysts have suggested that the reduction in pomp has more to do with an attempt to avoid drawing attention to the scale of Russian losses in Ukraine. As for Mr Putin’s fiery 10-minute address, it went over much of the same ground as all of the president’s speeches in recent months – painting his invasion of Ukraine as necessary to defend Russia against a Western threat. “Our heroic ancestors proved that there is nothing stronger, more powerful and more reliable than our unity. There is nothing in the world stronger than our love for the motherland,” Mr Putin said. The Russian president has often used patriotic rhetoric that harks back to the Second World War in an effort to rally his citizens and forces, with 9 May being one of the most important dates in the Russian political calendar. Mr Putin tried to strike a rousing note in his latest address, saying that all of Russia was praying for its heroes at the front. He concluded it with a cheer for “Russia, for our valiant armed forces, for victory!” As for the airstrikes, Ukraine said its air defences had shot down 23 of 25 Russian cruise missiles fired chiefly at the capital Kyiv overnight, and that there were no reported casualties. Moscow has stepped up such attacks in the run-up to Victory Day, and ahead of the anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive, which Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has said will be launched “soon”. It was the second night in a row of major Russian airstrikes, and the fifth so far this month. “As at the front, the plans of the aggressor failed,” said Sergei Popko, head of the Kyiv city military administration. The Kremlin clearly feels a need to keep morale high, with the Ukraine invasion having become a war of attrition, particularly in the bloody fighting around the eastern city of Bakhmut. But Mr Putin’s message was undermined by a new profanity-laced tirade from the boss of Russia’s Wagner mercenaries – the group that has been at the forefront of the battle for Bakhmut. Yevgeny Prigozhin had threatened in recent days to withdraw his forces over a lack of ammunition and support, and on Tuesday he appeared to do so again. “A combat order came yesterday which clearly stated that if we leave our positions [in Bakhmut], it will be regarded as treason against the motherland,” Mr Prigozhin said in an audio message. “[But] if there is no ammunition, then we will leave our positions and be the ones asking who is really betraying the motherland.” Mr Zelensky said Moscow had failed to capture Bakhmut despite a self-imposed deadline to give Mr Putin a battlefield trophy in time for Victory Day. The Ukrainian leader hosted the EU Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, in Kyiv on Tuesday, in a meeting that served as an opportunity to play up Kyiv’s close ties to its Western allies. “Our efforts for a united Europe, for security and peace, need to be as strong as Russia’s desire to destroy our security, our freedom, our Europe,” Mr Zelensky said at their joint news conference. What is known in Russia as Victory Day is traditionally marked as Europe Day by the EU, commemorating the post-war integration movement that led to the founding of the European Union. Mr Zelensky signed a decree to establish the day as a celebration of peace and unity in Europe. He also submitted a bill to the Ukrainian parliament to make the previous day, 8 May, a “Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism” in Ukraine. “Kyiv, as the capital of Ukraine, is the beating heart of today’s European values,” Ms Von der Leyen said at the news conference. “Courageously, Ukraine is fighting for the ideals of Europe that we celebrate today.” The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, speaking to the European parliament in Strasbourg, said: “Putin is parading his soldiers, tanks and missiles today. We must not be intimidated by such power plays! Let’s remain steadfast in our support for Ukraine – for as long as it takes!” Meanwhile, a UK-led group of European countries has asked for expressions of interest to supply Ukraine with missiles with a range of up to 190 miles (300 km). The call for responses from manufacturers who could provide such missiles was included in a notice posted by the International Fund for Ukraine – a funding mechanism set up by Britain, Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden to expedite the provision of weapons to Kyiv. The notice was posted last week, but was reported on Tuesday. Asked at a think tank event in Washington about Britain’s policy on supplying fighter jets and long-range missiles to Ukraine, British foreign secretary James Cleverly declined to elaborate on specific plans. But he said it was important to keep looking at ways to “enhance and speed up the support we give to Ukraine”. “If we’re saving stuff up for a rainy day, this is the rainy day,” he said. Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report Read More The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary Vladimir Putin gives angry speech at stripped-back Victory Day parade Ukraine mocks Putin’s ‘loneliest little tank in world’ seen at Victory Day parade UK set to make Wagner mercenary group proscribed terrorist organisation

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