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Russia has dismissed speculation that it will declare all-out war in Ukraine in the coming days as "nonsense", BBC reported.

Moscow has up until now denied it is at war, instead referring to the invasion as a "special military operation".

But Western officials have speculated that President Vladimir Putin could use the 9 May Victory Parade to announce an escalation of military action.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, however, said there was no truth to the rumours "at all".

UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said last week that the Moscow parade - commemorating the defeat of the Nazis and end of World War Two - might be used to drum up support for a mass mobilisation of troops and renewed push into Ukraine, according to BBC.

"I would not be surprised, and I don't have any information about this, that he is probably going to declare on this May Day that 'we are now at war with the world's Nazis and we need to mass mobilise the Russian people'," he told LBC radio.

Russian officials only refer to the invasion as a "special military operation" to "demilitarise" or "de-Nazify" the country, referencing a baseless claim about Nazis in the Ukrainian government which Moscow used to justify the invasion. 

As well as the annual parade in Moscow, there are also long-standing reports that the Kremlin is planning some sort of additional parade in the city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine, almost all of which is now under Russian control. Ukrainian forces remain in one area of the city - a vast industrial steelworks called Azovstal.

Latest reports suggest that after the recent successful evacuation of some civilians, attacks on the steelworks have resumed and contact has been lost with the last remaining soldiers inside.

Ukrainian officials say the streets of the city centre are being cleared of debris, bodies, and unexploded bombs. Large parts of the city lie in ruins, after Russian forces bombarded it relentlessly for weeks under siege.

Ukrainian politician Alyona Shkrum told the BBC she was expecting things to become more difficult alongside Russia's victory day celebrations, BBC reported.

"For Putin and for the empire he's trying to build, basically this is a symbolic day, right?" she said.

"So he takes some kind of victory day and he turns it into a big fight right now against Nazis, which is obviously Russian propaganda and completely ridiculous. 

"We are expecting that there will be quite tough times here in Kyiv and in Odesa and in Mariupol, and in other cities for 9 May."

Complaining that the West is “stuffing Ukraine with weapons,” Russia bombarded railroad stations and other supply-line targets across the country, as the European Union moved to further punish Moscow for the war Wednesday by proposing a ban on oil imports.

Heavy fighting also raged at the Azovstal steel mill in Mariupol that represented the last stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in the ruined southern port city, according to the mayor, Associated Press reported.

A Russian official denied that Moscow’s troops were storming the plant, but the commander of the main Ukrainian military unit inside said Russian troops had broken into the mill’s territory.

The Russian military also said it used sea- and air-launched missiles to destroy electric power facilities at five railway stations across Ukraine, while artillery and aircraft also struck troop strongholds and fuel and ammunition depots.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba accused Russia of “resorting to the missile terrorism tactics in order to spread fear across Ukraine.”

Air raid sirens sounded in cities across the country on Wednesday night, and attacks were reported near Kyiv, the capital; in Cherkasy and Dnipro in central Ukraine; and in Zaporizhzhia in the southeast. In Dnipro, authorities said a rail facility was hit. Videos on social media suggested a bridge there was attacked.

There was no immediate word on casualties or the extent of the damage.

Responding to the strikes in his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said: “All of these crimes will be answered, legally and quite practically – on the battlefield.”

The flurry of attacks comes as Russia prepares to celebrate Victory Day on May 9, marking the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany. The world is watching for whether Russian President Vladimir Putin will use the occasion to declare a victory in Ukraine or expand what he calls the “special military operation.”

A declaration of all-out war would allow Putin to introduce martial law and mobilize reservists to make up for significant troop losses, according to the Associated Press.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the speculation as “nonsense.”

Meanwhile, Belarus, which Russia used as a staging ground for its invasion, announced the start of military exercises Wednesday. A top Ukrainian official said the country will be ready to act if Belarus joins the fighting.

The attacks on rail infrastructure were meant to disrupt the delivery of Western weapons, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the West is “stuffing Ukraine with weapons.”

A senior US defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the Pentagon’s assessment, said that while the Russians have tried to hit critical infrastructure around the western city of Lviv, specifically targeting railroads, there has been “no appreciable impact” on Ukraine’s effort to resupply its forces. Lviv, close to the Polish border, has been a major gateway for NATO-supplied weapons.

Weaponry pouring into Ukraine helped its forces thwart Russia’s initial drive to seize Kyiv and seems certain to play a central role in the growing battle for the Donbas, the eastern industrial region that Moscow now says is its main objective, Associated Press reported.

Ukraine has urged the West to ramp up the supply of weapons ahead of that potentially decisive clash. Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, which had been slow at first to help arm Ukraine, said his government is considering supplying howitzers, in addition to Gepard anti-aircraft guns and other equipment it has agreed to send.

The governor of the eastern Donetsk region, which lies in the Donbas, said Russian attacks left 21 people dead on Tuesday, the highest number of known fatalities since April 8, when a missile attack on the railway station in Kramatorsk killed at least 59.

In addition to supplying weapons to Ukraine, Europe and the US have sought to punish Moscow with sanctions. The EU’s top official called on the 27-nation bloc on Wednesday to ban Russian oil imports, a crucial source of revenue, according to the Associated Press.

“We will make sure that we phase out Russian oil in an orderly fashion, in a way that allows us and our partners to secure alternative supply routes and minimizes the impact on global markets,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.

The proposal needs unanimous approval from EU countries and is likely to be the subject of fierce debate. Hungary and Slovakia have already said they won’t take part in any oil sanctions. They could be granted an exemption, Associated Press reported.

Where are the candidates running for local level offices getting all the money they are lavishing on expensive campaigning paraphernalia and in looking after jumbo door-to-door teams?

It is an open secret that even the candidates for local elections spend millions of rupees on their campaigns. But there is no proper tracking of this money. In principle, it is the duty of the Election Commission to monitor election campaigns and keep tabs on candidates’ spendings. But keeping a close watch on the campaigns of thousands of candidates is beyond its capacity.

Prospective candidates start investing big months before the elections. To get an election ticket from their party, they have to appease key leaders at the center as well as at the local level. Usually, this entails some kind of cash handover. 

On April 27, senior Nepali Congress (NC) leader Shekhar Koirala had courted controversy by saying that a lot of money had changed hands during candidate-selection for local elections. Koirala said this after scores of Congress sympathizers from across the country complained to him that honest and committed cadres were being sidelined and that the party was nominating those who were rich.  

Political analyst and election-expenditure researcher Binod Sijapati says money’s role in the distribution of election tickets is pervasive. 

“We have heard of aspiring election candidates competing to buy election tickets from top party leaders,” he says. “After securing the candidacy, there are many other areas where they have to spend large sums. A big chunk of their election war-chest goes in cadre-mobilization.” 

Cadre mobilization has become a costly affair because the candidate selection process has been highly centralized. This means local-level cadres are reluctant to work for the candidate picked from the center. 

“So the candidates rely on the power of money to woo cadres and mobilize local cadres,” Sijapati says. “They also hand out money and meals to lure voters in rural areas”

Other key spending areas are transport and promotional material such as pamphlets, posters, flags, and T-shirts. 

So where indeed do candidates get hold of large sums of money to pour into their campaigns? 

They rely on local businessmen, contractors, and profit-oriented institutions.  

 According to Sijapati, funding the election campaign of a candidate is akin to an investment with the promise of high returns.  

“Candidates are ready to gamble away their own assets because if they win, they can gain so much more through back channels,” he adds. 

Candidates can accept donations from their well-wishers but such donations can only be routed through transparent banking channels. Instead, they choose to get their election expenditures from other sources, the ones that cannot be easily traced.

Businessmen and other interest groups are more than happy to invest in elections. If their chosen candidate wins, they will find ways to influence policies and decisions of local governments to not just recoup their investment but also to make hefty profits. For them, this is a simple quid pro quo investment, but that in turn promotes local-level corruption.

“In some cases, even the candidates don’t know how much money is being spent as people with different interests are financing their campaigns,” says Sijapati.

Then there are also some candidates who are taking out loans from their friends and relatives, even though their numbers are believed to be negligible.   

Yet there is an upside to election and campaign spending, no matter where it originates. 

Some economists see it as an opportunity to launder black money. They even hope that the current liquidity crisis will be eased after the elections. 

Political parties have reportedly amassed big amounts of cash to fund their election campaigns. As parties splurge on this cash, much of it could be routed into banking channels.

The downside of heavy campaign financing is that democracy suffers as a result. Elections are no more free and fair and governance is corrupted.

Expensive elections are not just a worry for the Election Commission. Even some political parties have been expressing concern. But fixing this problem is not easy. 

The legal and institutional mechanisms in place are hardly ever implemented. The poll governing body fixes expenditure ceilings for candidates, but without effective monitoring, there are no effective curbs in place.  

Surya Prasad Aryal, assistant spokesperson at the commission, says the body is trying to monitor election campaigns through its district and local level representatives.

The commission has set a ceiling of Rs 750,000 for mayor and deputy mayor candidates of metropolitan cities and Rs 550,000 for those contesting these top posts in sub-metropolitan cities. For the chairperson and vice-chairperson candidates of municipalities and rural municipalities, the ceilings have been set at Rs 450,000 and Rs 350,000 respectively.

Candidates are also required to open a separate bank account for the purpose of election campaigning and to appoint accountants. All transactions, big or small, should be made through bank checks. The rule also states that all candidates should submit their poll expenditure details within 30 days of the completion of elections. 

But so long as candidates continue to rely on undisclosed sources to fund their elections, the actual figures they spend on their campaigns will remain a secret. 

In 2017, a study by the Election Observation Committee, an NGO, estimated that Rs 13bn was spent on the three levels of elections; the candidates alone spent Rs 9.6bn. But these are at best rough estimates.

Ila Sharma, former election commissioner, concedes that hamstrung by lack of resources the Election Commission alone cannot track the money spent by candidates across the country. 

“What the commission can do is rigorously vet the documents of expenditure submitted by candidates after the elections. But it rarely does so,” she says.

When the elections are over, she suggests, the commission should invite officers from the Office of the Auditor General to go through the requisite documents. 

“It is obvious that political parties and their candidates are spending millions on election campaigns. We just don’t know how much,” Sharma says. 

Voters also have a role in bringing down election costs. 

Both Sharma and Sijapati ask voters to discourage the candidates who try to influence voting patterns with their money. 

But most of all, it is the responsibility of political parties to reduce the influence of money in the election process and to field clean and competent candidates.  

To control election spendings and promote better election candidates, some experts have long suggested a fully-proportional election system. But again, it is the political parties that will once again have to take the onus for this.

The Nepali Congress has published the schedule for its election campaigns and assemblies for the May 13 local elections.

Top NC leaders including the party president are scheduled to address the poll campaigns, according to the chief secretary of the party office, Krishna Prasad Paudel.

As per the schedule, the party will organise a poll assembly in Biratnagar of Morang on May 4. The assembly will be addressed by NC leaders including Prime Minister and its president Sher Bahadur Deuba, senior leader Ram Chandra Paudel and general secretary Bishwo Prakash Sharma among others, said the party office.

Likewise, a poll gathering to be held on May 5 in Bharatpur in Chitwan will be addressed by party president Deuba, leader Paudel, joint general secretary Mahalaxmi Upadhyay ‘Dina’.

The NC is slated to organise poll assemblies in Kathmandu on May 6, in Butwal (Rupandehi), Damauli (Tanahun) and Janakpur (Dhanusa) on May 7, in Pokhara (Kaski) and Tulasipur (Dang) on May 8, in Dhangadhi (Kailali) on May 9 and Dadeldhura on May 10.

The assemblies will be addressed by top party leaders including president Deuba, senior leader Paudel, vice president Dhan Raj Gurung, general secretary Gagan Kumar Thapa and joint general secretaries Jeevan Pariyar, Kishor Singh Rathaur, Farmullah Mansur, Bhishma Raj Angdambe, Mahendra Yadav and Badri Pandey among others.