May 9th is a holiday in Russia.

Victory Day commemorates the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, and it typically features a huge parade of troops and military equipment in the Russian capital.

This year, Russian President Vladimir Putin said NATO, an alliance of European and North American countries, had been increasingly threatening Russia

And though he didn't mention Ukraine by name, President Putin described Russia's actions there as a preemptive strike against NATO expansion.

Ukraine is not a member of NATO, but it said in the past it wanted to be⏤that nation also marked Victory Day.

Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union in 1945, one of the allies that defeated Germany

And Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said his country would never forget what its ancestors did in World War II, adding that very soon, there would be two victory days in Ukraine and none in Russia.

Meantime, US President Joe Biden said another 150 million dollars' worth of American weapons and field equipment was on the way to Ukraine,

and he asked Congress to approve 33 billion in arms and aid for the Eastern European country, in addition to the 13.6 billion that the US approved in March.

The US leader said Ukraine's international partners have to keep weapons flowing to help the country succeed.

But critics of the US government spending have questioned why America is giving Ukraine arms instead of selling them to the country.

Russia has accused the US of fighting a proxy war in Ukraine when a nation isn't directly involved in battle but it supports a side that is.

A former US ambassador denies that, saying America is helping Ukraine defend itself against a direct Russian attack.

One specific part of Ukraine that's been targeted is its infrastructure.

A Ukrainian official says Russia wants to stop Ukraine's railways from being used to transport weapons and humanitarian aid.

The train from Kyiv takes about 25 minutes to reach the Irpin River.

But this is the first time in almost two months that a passenger train has actually been able to roll across the bridge that spans it.

One of two rail bridges here has just been rebuilt; the other is still impassable.

The vital link between Kyiv and the bombed-out Irpin suburb was destroyed as Russian troops tried to advance toward the capital.

Ukrainian Railways says it's lost access to 20% of its network due either to Russian occupation or Russian bombs that have cut off access to long stretches of track.

Orange-vested workers have been quietly repairing this span for weeks, ever since the Russians finally retreated.

It's actually less than four weeks, which normally would take months and months of civil engineering work, planning, projecting; so now, like, when the situation is stuff everyone works 24/7.

The railway has been an indispensable tool in getting supplies in and people out of the most dangerous areas, but it has also been a huge target for Russian bombs.

Repairing the damage is dangerous work.

The railway says that well over 100 rail employees have died since the war began⏤some of those have been fighting on the front lines, but many others have just been showing up for work

Every morning, railway people are not asking themselves whether to go to work or not⏤this is their duty.

But whatever damage is done won't last long.

The army of Ukrainian rail workers is even bigger than Ukraine's actual active duty military.

Despite the danger, they're here to stay.

Where am I going to go? I work here. I'm not going anywhere.

Staying put, so Ukraine can keep moving

10-second trivia: Which of these places occupies the greatest area?

Alaska, Caspian Sea, Iran, or Mongolia.

It's not just the biggest US state⏤Alaska's 665,000 square miles makes it larger than many countries.

There's one main road running in and out of the Lowell Point community in southern Alaska.

It's a resort area that's popular with tourists, and, well, some folks are getting a little extra time there.

No one was hurt last Saturday when a landslide blocked the road connecting Lowell Point to the city of Seward.

It reportedly started after a single boulder rolled down onto the street, and after that was followed by rocks, rubble, dirt, and trees.

A 300-foot wide pile cut off land transportation, so people looking to get around it had to use a boat.

A woman who owns a rental property in Seward says this commonly happens on Lowell Road.

The landslide still isn't stable.

The state government has sent geologists to the area to determine when it's safe enough to start cleaning up the road before it can reopen.

On another American coast, developers and conservationists are trying to build renewable energy facilities without disturbing wildlife.

According to North Carolina State University, renewable power sources typically take up more space than fossil fuel plants,

and that can destroy habitats, block animals' travel routes, and in the case of offshore wind turbines, threatened birds in the air and marine life below the surface.

What can be done about this?

New york's waterways may be best known for skyline views and crowded shipping lanes.

Yet these busy waters also harbor a rich community of marine mammals.

Local whale species include the iconic humpback, fin whales, and the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

These photographs [were] captured thanks to a multi-year aerial survey conducted by Tetra Tech and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

Right off of our shores, you know, in less than the average distance that, you know, a New Yorker or someone from the tri-state area would commute, these great whales are here.

Wildlife Conservation Society scientist Howard Rosenbaum studies the wild population here in the New York Bight, the area between Long Island and the New Jersey coast.

His mission? To use the latest research methods to protect the whales.

This is one of the busiest urban waterways on the planet, and they face threats such as, you know, impacts from shipping, which could include ship strikes or ocean noise, incidental entanglement in fishing gear.

These areas in the New York Bight along the East Coast, you know, under this administration are slated for extensive renewable energy development, which the planet needs.

We just want to make sure that it's done with the best environmental and management practices possible so that wildlife and renewable energy can coexist.

In partnership with Norwegian company Equinor, which has a major offshore wind project in New York, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, the WCS has deployed two acoustic buoys to detect whale calls in real-time.

If you can imagine when a whale vocalizes in the New York Bight, like for example, a North Atlantic right whale, we can actually detect those animals.

I can get an alert on my cell phone, and when that happens at a certain level right now, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration is requesting ships to slow down.

In the future, Rosenbaum says this alert system could be used to mandate boat slowdowns or to directly alert developers and shippers to the presence of whales so that they can pause noisy or potentially harmful activities.

It's a great tool and a great use of the technology that we can begin to use and harness the power of that to help better protect whales.

Rosenbaum's team also takes and analyzes genetic samples from the whales in order to understand more about how this population connects to others, like how they feed and breed.

We're also trying some new work which is called Environmental DNA, or EDNA, and with that, we're actually able to detect whale presence and what they're eating just by collecting the water sample.

For 10 out of 10, when people tell Brittany Davis, "Whoa, that is the tallest dog I've ever seen", they ain't lying.

This is the tallest dog on the planet, according to Guinness World Records, and the extra great Great Dane lives with a family in Texas.

His name is Zeus, he's two years old, his water bowl is the kitchen sink.

He does occasionally steal people food off the kitchen counter because, at more than three feet, five inches tall, he can.

I guess if the world's biggest dog is actually great,

it kind of makes you want to avoid boxers, fence in the bulls, respect the saints, feel sorry for blues,

freshen up Rottweilers, play with the toys, shot the rats, and, if you get lost, seek out a pointer,

because, if the world is going to the dogs, you don't want to stay malamute when it comes to finding chow.

Today's shout-out goes out to Jackson Middle School; hello to everyone watching in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Our YouTube channel is the one and only place to request a mention and you gotta be at least 13 years old.

I'm Carl Azuz, for CNN.