Russia-Ukraine updates: 2 US veterans who joined Ukrainian forces missing

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy released a video message from Kyiv early Monday to mark the World War II victory over Nazi Germany, telling his country that "very soon there will be two Victory Days in Ukraine."

"Today, we celebrate the Day of Victory over Nazism. And we will not give anyone a single piece of our history," Zelenskyy said. "We are proud of our ancestors who, together with other nations in the anti-Hitler coalition, defeated Nazism. And we will not allow anyone to annex this victory, we will not allow it to be appropriated."

"On the Day of Victory over Nazism, we are fighting for a new victory," he added. "The road to it is difficult, but we have no doubt that we will win."

Zelenskyy's remarks came just hours before Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a patriotic speech in Moscow's Red Square on Monday morning during a military parade for Victory Day, a national holiday in Russia commemorating the Soviet Union's defeat of the Nazis in 1945. Putin defended his invasion of neighboring Ukraine, telling Russian troops: "You are fighting for the motherland, for its future, so that no one forgets the lessons of the Second World War."

During a military parade in Moscow on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed his troops fighting in neighboring Ukraine but offered little insight into his next steps.

"You are fighting for the motherland, for its future, so that no one forgets the lessons of the Second World War," Putin said in a patriotic speech for Victory Day, a national holiday in Russia commemorating the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.

Columns of Russian soldiers marched through Moscow's Red Square, alongside tanks and other military vehicles boasting huge intercontinental ballistic missiles.

"Now here, on the Red Square, soldiers and officers from many regions of our vast homeland stand shoulder to shoulder, including those who came directly from Donbas, directly from the combat zone," Putin said.

Although he showed no signs of backing down, the Russian leader did not make any declarations of war, peace or victory during his remarks on Monday. He drew parallels between Soviet soldiers battling Nazi troops and the Russian forces fighting now in Ukraine, as he has vowed to "de-Nazify" the former Soviet republic. He also spoke of the disputed Donbas region of eastern Ukraine as if it was already part of Russia.

"These days, you are fighting for our people in the Donbas. For the security of our homeland, Russia," he said. "You are defending what fathers and grandfathers, great-grandfathers fought for."

Putin accused Ukraine of seeking to attain nuclear weapons and planning a "punitive operation in the Donbas, for an invasion of our historical lands, including Crimea." He also laid blame on the West for refusing to have "an honest dialogue" about Russia's demands for formal guarantees that Ukraine will never join NATO and that the alliance will pull back its forces from countries in eastern Europe that joined after the Cold War.

"Thus, an absolutely unacceptable threat was systematically created for us and directly at our borders," Putin added. "The danger was growing everyday."

He claimed that attacking Ukraine "was a forced, timely and only right decision -- the decision of a sovereign, strong, independent country."

"Russia has given a preemptive rebuff to aggression," he said.

As news spread of a successful evacuation operation from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, the deputy commander of the Azov battalion, Svyatoslav Palamar, said there was little reason to celebrate.

“Not enough is being done to try and evacuate wounded soldiers,” Palamar said, speaking at a press conference at the plant, which is surrounded by Russian forces.

Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Saturday the first stage of the rescue operation had concluded and all civilians had been evacuated from the steel plant. Another 173 people were rescued Sunday from Azovstal and surrounding Mariupol, according to the local city council.

But Palamar said some civilians might still be trapped under the rubble of ruined shelters and that many bodies of deceased troops and civilians remain uncollected on the plant's territory.

More than 25,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in Mariupol, according to Azov commanders. Half of all Russian bombardment and shelling in Ukraine was aimed at Mariupol, the battalion commanders said, adding that the city was shelled 150 times a day on average.

Russia has lost about 2,500 troops, with a further 500 wounded and over 60 destroyed tanks, in the city, Azov officials claimed. Yet the unblocking of Mariupol by military means remains difficult due to the lack of heavy weapons, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during a joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Kyiv on Sunday.

Russia continued over the weekend to shell Ukrainian cities. Zelenskyy said Russians have “celebrated” the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation on May 8 by launching nine missile strikes against Odessa. Zelenskyy spoke at a press briefing in Kyiv held after his talks with visiting Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic. The Ukrainian President also met the head of the German parliament, Baerbel Bas, on Sunday. The two leaders spoke about how “German leadership in the European Union” can help Ukraine, Zelenskyy said in his nightly address on Sunday.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted Sunday that Berlin made a mistake by prohibiting Ukrainian symbols and flags at rallies during events on May 8-9.

“It's deeply false to treat them equally with Russian symbols,” Kuleba wrote, adding that “taking the Ukrainian flag away from peaceful protestors is an attack on everyone who now defends Europe and Germany from Russian aggression with a flag in their hands.”

On Monday, as Ukraine celebrated the Day of Victory over Nazism in World War II, Zelenskyy said that the ongoing conflict was “not a war of two armies. This is a war of two worldviews.”

Russian missiles are trying to destroy Ukrainian philosophy, Zelenskyy said, because it "scares them.”

“We are free people who have their own path,” the president said. “Today we are waging war on this path and we will not give anyone a single piece of our land.”

-ABC News' Edward Szekeres, Fidel Pavlenko, Irene Hnatiuk, Max Uzol and Uliana Lototska

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited Ukraine on Sunday and toured devastated areas in and around Kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

During a joint news conference, Trudeau pledged Canada's continuing support for Ukraine and condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin for atrocities he alleged Russian forces are responsible for in Ukraine.

"It is clear that Vladimir Putin is responsible for heinous war crimes," Trudeau said. "We will continue to do the work of being there for you with whatever we can, whatever you need."

Trudeau announced that Canada is sending additional military support to Ukraine, including drone cameras, satellite imagery, small arms and ammunition.

The prime minister also said Canada will impose new sanctions on 40 Russian individuals he alleged are complicit in Putin's war.

"And we're bringing forward new sanctions on 40 Russian individuals and five entities, oligarchs and close associates of the regime in the defense sector, all of them complicit in Putin's war," Trudeau said.

Trudeau also announced that all trade tariffs on Ukrainian imports to Canada will be lifted for the next year and that Canada is donating CA$25 million, or about US$19.3 million, to the U.N. World Food Program, which is providing emergency food assistance to people in Ukraine.

Trudeau said that he and Larissa Galadza, Canada's ambassador to Ukraine, raised the Canadian flag at the country's embassy in Kyiv on Sunday to signal its reopening. He called the move an "important symbol not just of Canada's steadfast friendship with Ukraine, but of the incredible resilience and heroism of the Ukrainian people, who ensured that this city did not fall."

-ABC News' Christine Theodorou