{"id":64044,"date":"2026-05-09T17:45:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T17:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/64044\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T17:45:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T17:45:12","slug":"putin-marks-pared-down-victory-day-parade-in-moscow-after-zelensky-gives-permission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/64044\/","title":{"rendered":"Putin Marks Pared-Down Victory Day Parade in Moscow After Zelensky Gives \u2018Permission\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russian President Vladimir Putin<\/a> oversaw a pared-down Victory Day parade in Moscow on Saturday, without the usual lines of tanks or missile carriers rolling through Red Square to mark the Soviet Union\u2019s role in defeating Nazi Germany.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s Defense Ministry blamed the \u201ccurrent operational situation\u201d for the low-key ceremony, a reference to its ongoing invasion of Ukraine<\/a>. But Russian leaders were also reportedly consumed by the threat posed to the event by Kyiv\u2019s fleet of long-range drones, which have grown increasingly sophisticated in recent years.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The parade has normally served as a show of force from Russia, both to honor the 27 million Soviet citizens who died in World War II, and to demonstrate the nation\u2019s vast military power, including its nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles.<\/p>\n

Read More: What It\u2019s Like to Live in Ukraine, 4 Years Since Russia\u2019s Invasion<\/a><\/p>\n

Yet Moscow\u2019s simplest Victory Day parade in recent memory comes as the Kremlin is struggling to achieve meaningful gains on the battlefield in Ukraine<\/a>, some four years now.<\/p>\n

Fewer international leaders and press were present than in last year\u2019s grand parade, forcing most press to rely on Russian state media present at the event. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday the number of journalists is limited \u201csince the entire ceremony is somewhat limited.\u201d CNN<\/a> said it was initially accredited to attend the parade, but those privileges were stripped on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, Laotian President Thongloun Sisoulith and Malaysian King Sultan Ibrahim were among those in attendance as Russian soldiers and sailors\u2014along with North Korean troops who reportedly fought alongside them in Ukraine\u2014marched in the country\u2019s capital as fighter jets flew above. It lasted for just 45 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe great feat of the generation of victors inspires the soldiers carrying out the goals of the special military operation today,” Putin said in his speech, referencing the war in Ukraine. “They are confronting an aggressive force armed and supported by the whole bloc of NATO. And despite this, our heroes move forward.”<\/p>\n

Massive screens showed these jets, intercontinental missiles, drones, and a nuclear submarine, still an attempt to show weaponry strength.<\/p>\n

He was protected by a large security detail during his appearance, as recent reports<\/a> claim that the Kremlin has tightened its monitoring of Putin amid fears of assassination attempts and possible coup plots.<\/p>\n

Zelensky gives ‘permission’ for parade to take place\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last week, Russia unsuccessfully tried to convince Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to agree to a ceasefire on the day of the parade. But on Friday, President Donald Trump announced<\/a> that Russia and Ukraine agreed to a last minute three-day ceasefire from May 9 to 11, which includes \u201ca suspension of all kinetic activity, and also a prison swap of 1,000 prisoners from each Country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis request was made directly by me, and I very much appreciate its agreement by President Vladimir Putin and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy,\u201d Trump said on Truth Social.\u00a0 \u201cHopefully, it is the beginning of the end of a very long, deadly, and hard fought War.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zelensky said in an official presidential decree<\/a> tinged with sarcasm that he would \u201cpermit the holding of a parade\u201d, adding on X <\/a>that\u00a0 the \u201cRed Square is less important to us than the lives of Ukrainian prisoners who can be brought home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peskov, meanwhile, told reporters that Russia did not \u201cneed anyone\u2019s permission to be proud of our Victory Day.\u201dRussia\u2019s Defense Ministry had threatened to \u201claunch a retaliatory, massive missile strike on the center of Kyiv\u201d if it was to disrupt the parade.<\/p>\n

Yet, Ukraine\u2019s long-range missiles and drones have become increasingly threatening to Russia, with one drone crashing<\/a> into a high-rise building miles away from the Kremlin in the western part of Moscow just days ahead of the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Russia making slow progress on battlefield\u00a0<\/p>\n

More than four years after launching what it initially described as a \u201cthree-day special military operation,\u201d Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine has slowed to an attritional grind.\u00a0<\/p>\n

New figures<\/a> released by the Latvia-based Russian-language media outlet Meduza and independent Russian outlet Mediazona found that about 352,000 Russian soldiers had died in the war against Ukraine from its beginning in February 2022 through the end of 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based think tank, estimated similar<\/a> numbers in January. CSIS also said Russia was \u201cadvancing remarkably slowly on the battlefield,\u201d as its economic standing is further strained by the cost of the war.<\/p>\n

A Russian offensive aimed at the city of Pokrovsk, for example, advanced at a rate of 70 meters a day between\u00a0 Feb. 2024 and Jan. 2026, which CSIS described as \u201cslower than the most brutal offensive campaigns over the last century, including the notoriously bloody Battle of the Somme during World War I.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite these losses, Moscow continues to profess that it can outlast Kyiv, making slow advances across the 600-mile front line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russian President Vladimir Putin oversaw a pared-down Victory Day parade in Moscow on Saturday, without the usual lines…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[131],"tags":[916,4479,37575,912,65,7298,329,8975,330,33893,328,347,395],"class_list":{"0":"post-64044","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vladimir-putin","8":"tag-defense-ministry","9":"tag-invasion-of-ukraine","10":"tag-military-parade","11":"tag-moscow","12":"tag-president-donald-trump","13":"tag-president-vladimir-putin","14":"tag-russia","15":"tag-russian-soldiers","16":"tag-ukraine","17":"tag-victory-day-parade","18":"tag-vladimir-putin","19":"tag-war-in-ukraine","20":"tag-zelensky"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116545868624080306","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}