{"id":949230,"date":"2026-05-09T22:46:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T22:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/949230\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T22:46:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T22:46:18","slug":"putin-says-ukraine-war-winding-down-blasts-west-for-backing-kyiv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/949230\/","title":{"rendered":"Putin Says Ukraine War Winding Down, Blasts West for Backing Kyiv"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Vladimir Putin on Saturday said the war in Ukraine was winding down, slamming Western support for Kyiv, as the first day of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire was marked by mutual accusations of violations.<\/p>\n

Putin spoke after telling soldiers at the scaled-down Victory Day parade in Moscow that they were fighting an “aggressive force” in Ukraine, backed by all of NATO and describing his war goals as “just.”<\/p>\n

The Russian leader has made the memory of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II a central narrative of his 25-year rule and repeatedly invoked it to justify his Ukraine offensive.<\/p>\n

Russian authorities typically mark the Victory Day parade with pomp and grandeur. But a spate of Ukrainian long-range attacks in recent weeks prompted the Kremlin to ramp up security measures and downsize<\/a>\u00a0this year’s celebrations.<\/p>\n

When asked after the parade whether the Western military aid to Ukraine had gone too far, Putin said: “They started ratcheting up the confrontation with Russia, which continues to this day.<\/p>\n

“I think it [the conflict] is heading to an end but it’s still a serious matter.”<\/p>\n

“They spent months waiting for Russia to suffer a crushing defeat, for its statehood to collapse. It didn’t work out.<\/p>\n

“And then they got stuck in that groove and now they can’t get out of it,” Putin said, referring to the Western countries.<\/p>\n

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\u26a1 Russia’s Victory Day parade on Red Square is underway. The event will not feature military hardware for the first time since 2008. <\/p>\n

Follow along here: https:\/\/t.co\/tlKxGa14Tb<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/keYSQ7nlpk<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) May 9, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Putin added he was ready to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a third country only once all conditions for a potential peace agreement were settled.<\/p>\n

“This should be the final point, not the negotiations themselves,” he said.<\/p>\n

Ceasefire violations<\/p>\n

After two failed attempts at truces this week by both Russia and Ukraine, U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday announced that a three-day ceasefire between both sides would come into effect from Saturday.<\/p>\n

Moscow and Kyiv traded accusations of violations, but no major strikes were reported, despite continued drone activity and civilian casualties on both sides.<\/p>\n

“Hopefully, it is the beginning of the end of a very long, deadly, and hard fought War,” Trump posted on his Truth Social network, adding the ceasefire would be accompanied by a prisoner exchange.<\/p>\n

The Kremlin said that as of now there were no plans to prolong the truce.<\/p>\n

The warring sides also agreed to swap 1,000 prisoners each during the truce. But Putin said Saturday that Russia had not yet received any proposals from Ukraine on the exchange.<\/p>\n

Scaled-down parade<\/p>\n

The parade was vastly smaller compared to previous years, with no military hardware on display for the first time in nearly two decades and only a handful of foreign dignitaries in attendance \u2014 most of them leaders of Russia’s close allies.<\/p>\n

In an address to the parade, attended by Russian military units as well as soldiers from North Korea, Putin invoked the Soviet victory to rally support for his army in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

“The great feat of the generation of victors inspires the soldiers carrying out the goals of the special military operation today,” Putin said.<\/p>\n

“They are confronting an aggressive force armed and supported by the entire NATO bloc. And despite this, our heroes move forward,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I firmly believe that our cause is just,” he added later.<\/p>\n

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The speech drew a cool reception from some in Moscow, with internet outages and fatigue over the four-year war casting a shadow over the events.<\/p>\n

When asked how she felt on Victory Day, which marks the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, 36-year-old economist Elena replied: “Nothing.”<\/p>\n

“I need the internet, and I don’t have it,” she told AFP from central Moscow, saying she would not watch the parade.<\/p>\n

Russia has introduced intermittent internet shutdowns for the duration of the parade, citing increased threats from Ukrainian attacks.<\/p>\n

Only the leaders of Belarus, Malaysia, Laos, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan were listed as attending, in contrast to high-profile visitors including China’s Xi Jinping during last year’s event.<\/p>\n

Now in its fifth year, the war has killed hundreds of thousands of people and spiraled into Europe’s deadliest since World War II.<\/p>\n

U.S.-mediated talks on ending the fighting have shown little progress since February, when Washington shifted focus to its war against Iran.<\/p>\n

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