Putin arrives in Red Square as Russia’s annual Victory Parade gets underway

Vladimir Putin has addressed his country’s Victory Day parade on Moscow’s Red Square, claiming that Russia wants peace while accusing the ‘western elite’ of waging a ‘real war’ against his forces in Ukraine.

Cheers rang out across Red Square, with a gun salute and the Russian national anthem, though with a much slimmed down show of military hardware – and no aviation. Only one tank took part – a Second World War-era T-34 – as his forces continue to take heavy losses across the border hundreds of miles to the west.

His speech, watched by scores of uniformed soldiers, military officials and leaders of former Soviet nations, came just hours after another barrage of cruise missiles hit several sites across Ukraine.

‘Today civilisation is once again at a decisive turning point. A real war has been unleashed against our Motherland,’ he said in a reference to his ongoing invasion that the Kremlin portrays as being a proxy conflict with the West.

With snipers watching the crowd closely, he welcomed soldiers fighting in Ukraine who were present at the parade, and framed his on-going illegal invasion as being akin to the Soviet fight against Nazi Germany in the Second World War, which came to an end 78 years ago – a false narrative that has nevertheless resonated at home.

‘To Russia! To our brave armed forces! To Victory!’ Putin concluded the speech.

In a major coup for the Kremlin, at least six post-Soviet leaders including the prime minister of Armenia and the president of Kazakhstan travelled to attend the military parade that fetes the Soviet victory in 1945.

Pictures from Moscow showed Putin arriving and shaking hands with military officials, before delivering his speech. Hundreds of uniformed soldiers then began their parade, marching through Moscow’s famous square.

Dozens of military vehicles – including armoured personnel carriers, trucks and intercontinental ballistic missile launchers – also rolled through the city. Observers noted, however, that few Russian tanks were on display. The only model that appeared in the parade was the T-34, which was used in the Second World War.

As such, the parade looked more modest than usual: There were no military aircraft flying over Red Square, and fewer pieces of military equipment were displayed. For the first time in years, the parade ended in under an hour. 

The pared-down celebrations come after ambiguous official reports last week that two Ukrainian drones flew into the heart of Moscow under the cover of darkness and reached the Kremlin before being shot down. The Kremlin billed it as an attempt at Putin’s life; Ukraine denied involvement. 

Only some 8,000 troops marched in Red Square this year – the lowest number since 2008. Even the parade in 2020, the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, featured some 13,000 soldiers, and last year, 11,000 troops took part. 

Russia also enacted a major security clampdown for the commemorations. Authorities curbed the use of drones and ride-sharing services in Moscow and even jet skis on the canals of St. Petersburg. 

State television showed Putin stood next to World War II veterans as he delivered his 10-minute speech, in which he repeated familiar messages he has delivered many times in the nearly 15 months of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

‘We have repulsed international terrorism, we will protect the inhabitants of Donbas, we will ensure our security,’ he said, despite Ukraine shaping up for another counteroffensive having pushed Russia back east last year.

To troops fighting in Ukraine, some of whom were at the Parade, he said: ‘There is nothing more important now than your combat effort. The security of the country rests on you today, the future of our statehood and our people depend on you.’ 

Putin insisted that the West’s ‘untamed ambitions, arrogance and impunity’ are to blame for the conflict. He claimed ‘Western globalist elites’ were sowing Russophobia and aggressive nationalism, while the Ukrainian people had become ‘hostages to a state coup’ and to the ambitions of the West.

Despite ordering his troops across the border in February last year and repeatedly attacking civilian centres in Ukraine, Putin claimed he wants peace.

‘We want to see our future peaceful and stable. We believe that any ideology of supremacy is not acceptable to us. However, the western elite and globalists are insisting on their exceptional character,’ he said.

‘They [Western countries] are destroying traditional family values that make a person a person, and they are dictating their will to others. Their rule to others. In essence, this is a system of robbing others, and a system of violence,’ he added.

In a re-writing of history – incorrectly framing the Soviet Union as the nation fully responsible for the defeat of Nazi Germany – he said of the West: ‘They have forgotten who destroyed that evil, who defended their motherlands, who liberated the people of Europe. We see that in a number of countries.’

Despite this, Putin said the memory of World War Two was sacred and paid tribute to those who fought against Nazis, including the armies of the United States and Britain, and also to China’s fight against the Japanese.

Since coming to power in 2000, Putin has promoted a patriotic cult around the 1945 Soviet victory over the Nazis, used to stoke patriotism and boost his standing as the heir of Soviet power. 

The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in World War Two, including many millions in Ukraine, but eventually pushed Nazi forces back to Berlin, where Hitler committed suicide and the red Soviet Victory Banner was raised over the Reichstag in 1945 – two months before the Western Allied troops entered the German capital.

Along with the 1812 defeat of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, the crushing of Nazi Germany is Russia’s most revered military triumph, though both catastrophic invasions from the west left Russia deeply sensitive about its Western borders. It claims its invasion of Ukraine is in part to protect these.

Kremlin officials specifically cite the expansion of NATO, which recently welcoming Finland into the alliance. European nations point to Russia’s aggression as the reason why countries want to join. 

Putin did not address the challenges facing Russia as its forces prepare for the expected major counter-offensive by Ukraine, or outline any path to victory, as he continues to take heavy losses.

Putin claims his so-called ‘special military operation’ is an effort to bring about the ‘denazification’ of a belligerent imperial power backed by the west, a narrative that has been refuted by Kyiv and its allies – who say the invasion is an imperialistic land grab by Russia with the goal of eradicating a sovereign nation.

Putin and other Kremlin officials had hoped to have captured Kyiv and overthrown its government ahead of last year’s Victory Day parade. But Ukraine’s defences repelled the Russian assault on the capital in the first month, forcing Russian into an embarrassing retreat in a massive blow to Putin.

One year on, and after 14 months of fighting in Ukraine, Russia still has little to show for its military campaign.

Putin’s troops have failed to take control of the eastern town of Bakhmut, his military leadership is riven by conflict and Kyiv is again preparing to go on the offensive. 

What’s more, in the run-up to the sabre-rattling festivities, Russia has witnessed numerous incidents, including explosions derailing trains, fires, a drone attack on the Kremlin and a bombing attack that wounded a fiercely pro-Kremlin writer, Zakhar Prilepin.

For the first time since the Second World War, a sense of vulnerability has been felt in Moscow. 

Meanwhile, more than two dozen cities and towns – near the Ukraine border, but also in more distant Russian regions – have cancelled plans to stage their own military parades over security concerns.

Russian media have counted 24 Russian cities that cancelled May 9 military parades – the staple of celebrations across Russia – for the first time in years. 

The Immortal Regiment processions, in which crowds take to the streets holding portraits of relatives who died or served in World War II – another pillar of the holiday – have also been canceled in multiple cities.

Regional officials blamed unspecified ‘security concerns.’ Some speculated, however, that the reason behind cancelling Immortal Regiment marches was the fact that Russians might bring portraits of relatives who died in Ukraine to those processions, illustrating the scale of Russia’s losses in the drawn-out conflict. 

Moscow sought to project a show of force during its flagship parade on Red Square, with top-notch military equipment rumbling through it and leaders of ex-Soviet nations standing beside President Vladimir Putin. 

Ahead of the parade, Political analyst Arkady Dubnov said that ‘for the first time in many years’ Putin will be surrounded at a Victory Day parade by a number of post-Soviet leaders.

‘Despite the serious weakening of its global positions after February 24, 2022, Russia remains to a certain extent the metropolis of a former empire whose actions have to be taken into account,’ Dubnov said.

The leaders of Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Armenia and Putin’s closest ally – Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko – are all in attendance.

Tuesday also saw Russia unleash a barrage of cruise missiles on Ukraine overnight into Tuesday, hours before the start of the parade.

The Kremlin’s forces launched 25 missiles overnight in a wave of attacks across Ukraine, the Ukrainian air force said, adding that air defence had successfully destroyed 23 of them.

In a Telegram post, the air force said eight Kalibr cruise missiles were launched from carriers in the Black Sea toward the east and 17 from strategic aircraft.

‘As at the front, the plans of the aggressor failed,’ Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv’s city military administration, said in comments posted on the Telegram messaging app.

Tuesday’s attacks – the fifth in May – came a day after Russia launched its biggest drone swarm yet in a renewed air campaign unleashed 10 days ago after a lull since early March.

‘(They) try to kill as many civilians as possible – on this day,’ Popko said.

He said that according to preliminary information there were no casualties in the attack that was carried out with cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea region.

Falling debris fell on a house in the Holosiivskyi district in the southwest of Kyiv, Kyiv’s Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said on his Telegram messaging channel, adding there were no casualties or much damage.

In the often-targeted Shevchenkivskyi district of central Kyiv debris was found on a road.

‘Kyiv stood up again and will stand up in the future!’ Popko said.

Ahead of the parade, Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief of the mercenary group Wagner, issued a series of blistering, profanity-laced videos, blaming Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov for withholding ammunition amid talk of infighting and rivalries.

His statement appeared to row back from comments hours earlier that initial data showed they had begun to get it. 

But Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose forces have spent months trying to capture the eastern Ukraine city of Bakhmut, added that he did not want to ‘spoil’ Russia’s big Victory Day parade set for 0700 GMT, and would reveal more details afterwards.

‘The people who were supposed to fulfil the (shipment) orders have so far, over the past day, not fulfilled them,’ Prigozhin said in a video post on the messaging app Telegram.

The Institute for the Study of War has pointed to ‘chain of command problems’ for the Russian army in Ukraine that cast doubt on Moscow’s ability to ‘coordinate a coherent theatre-wide defensive campaign’.

Russia and other ex-soviet states celebrate Victory Day on May 9, while most other European countries mark the date on May 8, due to the time difference when Nazi Germany signed to surrender in 1945.

Western nations that celebrate Victory in Europe Day (VE Day) do so to mark the end of all combat actions in the Second World War, which was officially specified as 23:01 Central European Time, which was already May 9 in Eastern Europe.

By contrast, Ukraine commemorated the end of World War II together with Europe on Monday, with President Volodymyr Zelensky vowing that Russian forces would be defeated just as Nazi Germany was beaten in 1945.

The Ukrainian leader said the Kremlin was responsible for ‘aggression and annexation, occupation and deportation’, as well as ‘mass murder and torture’. 

Zelensky said he had submitted a bill to parliament to formally commemorate World War II in Ukraine on May 8. For years the anniversary was marked on May 9, as it was in Russia and other ex-Soviet countries.

Ukraine will also mark a separate Europe Day on May 9, which promotes peace and unity on the continent, he said.

European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen arrived in Kyiv on Tuesday to mark the celebration of peace and unity, in a symbolic retort to Moscow’s Victory Day parade.

The president of the European Commission travelled on an overnight train from Poland to see President Volodymyr Zelensky and work on Ukraine’s quest for eventual EU membership, a reporter on the train said.