North Korea’s servicemen look ahead to the beginning of the Victory Day army parade in Moscow, Saturday, Could 9, 2026, throughout celebrations of the 81st anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany through the World Warfare II.
Pavel Bednyakov/Pool AP
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Pavel Bednyakov/Pool AP
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday voiced confidence of victory in Ukraine as he oversaw a army parade on Pink Sq. commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany in World Warfare II.
Safety was tight in Moscow as Putin and a number of other overseas leaders attended the parade, at the same time as a U.S.-brokered three-day ceasefire eased considerations about doable Ukrainian makes an attempt to disrupt the festivities.
Putin, in energy for greater than a quarter-century, has used Victory Day, Russia’s most essential secular vacation, to showcase the nation’s army would possibly and rally help for his army motion in Ukraine, now in its fifth yr.
Talking on the parade, Putin hailed Russian troops combating in Ukraine, declaring that they “face an aggressive force that is armed and supported by the entire bloc of NATO.”
“Victory has always been and will be ours,” Putin mentioned as columns of troops lined up on Pink Sq.. “The key to success is our moral strength, courage and valor, our unity and ability to endure anything and overcome any challenge.”
However this yr, for the primary time in practically twenty years, the parade passed off with out tanks, missiles and different heavy weapons, other than a standard flyover of fight jets.
Officers defined the sudden change of format by the “current operational situation” and mentioned that further safety measures have been taken in response to the specter of Ukrainian assaults.
For the primary time, Saturday’s parade featured troops from North Korea, a tribute to Pyongyang that despatched its troopers to combat alongside Moscow forces to repel a Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk area.
Earlier ceasefires failed to carry
Russia declared a unilateral ceasefire for Friday and Saturday, whereas Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy introduced a truce that was supposed to start on Could 6, however neither of them held because the events traded blame for persevering with assaults.
U.S. President Donald Trump introduced Friday that Russia and Ukraine have bowed to his request for a ceasefire operating Saturday via Monday and an change of prisoners, declaring that the break in combating may very well be the “beginning of the end” of the conflict.
Zelenskyy, who mentioned earlier this week that the Russian authorities “fear drones may buzz over Red Square” on Could 9, adopted up on Trump’s assertion by issuing a decree mockingly allowing Russia to carry its Victory Day celebrations on Saturday, declaring Pink Sq. briefly off-limits for Ukrainian strikes.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov shrugged off Zelenskyy’s decree as a “silly joke.” “We don’t need anyone’s permission to be proud of our Victory Day,” Peskov informed reporters.
Victory Day stays a uncommon level of consensus in Russia
Russia’s larger and better-equipped army has been making gradual however regular features alongside the greater than 1,000-kilometer (over 600-mile) entrance line. Ukraine has hit again with more and more environment friendly long-range assaults, putting Russian power services, manufacturing crops and army depots. It has developed drones able to reaching targets over 1,000 kilometers (greater than 600 miles) deep into Russia, far past its capabilities earlier than 2022.
Russian authorities warned that if Ukraine makes an attempt to disrupt Saturday’s festivities, Russia will perform a “massive missile strike on the center of Kyiv.” The Russian Protection Ministry warned the civilian inhabitants there and staff of overseas diplomatic missions of “the need to leave the city promptly.” The EU mentioned its diplomats would not depart the Ukrainian capital regardless of Russian threats.
Russian servicemen stand in a formation earlier than the Victory Day army parade in Moscow, Saturday, Could 9, 2026, throughout celebrations of the 81st anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany through the World Warfare II.
Pavel Bednyakov/Pool AP
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Pavel Bednyakov/Pool AP
Putin has used Victory Day celebrations to encourage nationwide delight and underline Russia’s place as a worldwide energy. The Soviet Union misplaced 27 million folks in 1941-45 in what it calls the Nice Patriotic Warfare, an infinite sacrifice that left a deep scar within the nationwide psyche and stays a uncommon level of consensus within the nation’s divisive historical past beneath Communist rule.
“We celebrate it with feelings of pride and love for our country, with understanding of our shared duty to defend the interests and future of our Motherland,” Putin mentioned on the parade.
“Our soldiers suffered colossal losses, made a colossal sacrifice in the name of freedom and dignity of the peoples of Europe, became the embodiment of courage and nobility, fortitude and humanity, and crowned themselves with the great glory of a grandiose victory.”
Victory Day parades on Pink Sq. have concerned a broad array of heavy weapons — from armored autos to nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles — yearly since 2008. Smaller parades are held elsewhere throughout the nation, however this time a lot of them have additionally been pared down and even canceled altogether for safety causes.
The authorities on Saturday ordered restrictions on all cell web entry and textual content messaging companies within the Russian capital, citing the necessity to guarantee public security. The federal government has methodically tightened web censorship and established more and more stringent controls over on-line actions, inflicting rumblings and uncommon public expressions of discontent.
Malaysia’s King Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar, Laos President Thongloun Sisoulith, Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Belarus’ authoritarian chief Alexander Lukashenko have been set to attend the festivities within the Russian capital. Prime Minister Robert Fico of Slovakia, a European Union member, was to fulfill with Putin and lay flowers on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier memorial simply outdoors the Kremlin partitions however deliberate to steer clear of the Pink Sq. parade.
