![]() ![]() ![]() Russian media counted 24 cities that also scrapped military parades - another staple of the celebrations - for the first time in years. “That seems to be for fear that those people who have lost their relatives in this current war on Ukraine might actually join the processions and show just the scale of the casualties that Russia has suffered in its current war,” Giles said. Meanwhile, the traditional Immortal Regiment processions, in which crowds take to the streets holding portraits of relatives who died or served in World War II - a pillar of the holiday - were canceled in multiple cities. ![]() But so much of that military might has already been mauled in Ukraine that Russia has very little to show on its parade in Red Square,” said Keir Giles, a Russia expert at London’s Chatham House think tank. “This is supposed to be a showpiece for Russian military might. The Kremlin’s forces deployed in Ukraine are defending a front line stretching more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles), presumably thinning the ranks of troops available for such displays. “We’re upset, but that’s all right it will be better in the future.” There are no tanks,” said Yelena Orlova, watching the vehicles rumble down Moscow’s Novy Arbat avenue after leaving Red Square. There was no fly-over of military jets, and the event lasted less than the usual hour. Even the procession in 2020, the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, featured some 13,000 soldiers, and last year, 11,000 troops took part. The government in Kiev has systematically dismantled monuments to the Red Army as part of its “decommunization” campaign, while denouncing the Soviet Union era as “Russian occupation” and glorifying Nazi collaborators such as Stepan Bandera’s nationalist militia and the ‘Galizien’ division of the Waffen-SS as national heroes.Some 8,000 troops took part in the parade in Moscow’s Red Square on Tuesday - the lowest number since 2008. Ukraine’s foreign ministry argued that the people of the Caucasus and Central Asia made “an invaluable contribution to the victory over Nazism 78 years ago” and “do not deserve the fate of being used now by the Kremlin taking part in a fake action that has nothing to do with the feat of the victors over Nazism.” Putin told the assembled guests that Russia bore no ill will for the people of Ukraine, whom he described as “hostages” of the 2014 US-backed coup in Kiev who were used as pawns by the West in its “cruel selfish plans.” The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry accused Putin of being a war criminal and claimed that in his speech, the Russian president “justified killings of Ukrainians, destruction of Ukrainian cities and villages, abduction of Ukrainian children and repressions against residents of occupied Ukrainian territories.” They described the parade as featuring Russian military equipment “which has been used for ten years in Russia’s unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine.” Read more US threatened WWII vets over Victory Day parade – envoy Kiev described the celebration as “the event on the Red Square,” and said the participation of seven leaders amounted to “an immoral and unfriendly act towards Ukraine, demonstrating contempt for the Ukrainian people who are fighting for its survival and freedom.” The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday accused leaders of six former Soviet republics who visited Moscow for the Victory Day parade of “immoral and unfriendly” behavior and being used by Russian President Vladimir Putin for a “fake action” unrelated to victory in WWII.Īrmenian PM Nikol Pashinyan, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan, Sadyr Japarov of Kyrgyzstan, Emomali Rahmon of Tajikistan, Serdar Berdymuhamedov of Turkmenistan and Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan were in attendance at the celebration, marking the 78th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat.īy tradition, Tuesday’s ceremony opened with the guard of honor carrying the battle flag of the 150th Infantry Division, the banner raised atop the Reichstag on May 2, 1945. ![]()
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