Russia held its most scaled-back Victory Day parade in years on May 9, curtailing its usual military display amid fears of attacks tied to the ongoing war in Ukraine. The annual Red Square event, which commemorates the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany and honors the 27 million Soviet citizens who died in World War II, proceeded without tanks or other heavy equipment rolling over the cobbles.
Soldiers marched past Vladimir Lenin’s mausoleum, fighter jets performed over the Kremlin towers, and President Vladimir Putin gave a speech before laying flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said the event was “as usual, except for the demonstration of military equipment.” Security in Moscow was tightened, with Reuters images showing armed soldiers in pickup trucks and roads blocked around the city centre; the capital and its region have about 22 million residents.
The scaled-back parade came as a temporary three-day ceasefire — announced by US President Donald Trump and reportedly backed by both Moscow and Kyiv — took effect from Saturday to Monday. The two sides also agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners. Trump told reporters he wanted the fighting to stop, calling the conflict “the worst thing since World War Two in terms of life,” and said he would “like to see a big extension” of the truce.
Moscow had warned that any Ukrainian attempt to disrupt the parade would prompt a massive missile strike on Kyiv, and foreign diplomats were advised to prepare for possible evacuations of their staff in the Ukrainian capital. In response, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy issued a wry decree “allowing” Russia’s parade to go ahead and saying Ukrainian weapons would not target Red Square.
The shadow of the Ukraine war hung over the celebrations. The conflict, which began with Russia’s 2022 invasion, has killed hundreds of thousands, devastated large areas of Ukraine and placed heavy strain on Russia’s roughly $3 trillion economy. It has also pushed relations between Russia and Europe to their worst point since the Cold War.
Critics inside Russia have voiced anxiety about the country’s direction. Jailed pro-war nationalist Igor Girkin, who has criticized the Kremlin’s conduct of the war, warned the crisis could deepen and used a naval analogy to suggest leadership fears were focused on personal survival rather than the state’s fate. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed Western media reports of heightened protection for Putin or fears of a coup as baseless.
Foreign leaders attending this year included Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Malaysia’s King Sultan Ibrahim and Laos President Thongloun Sisoulith. The contrast with two decades earlier was noted: 21 years ago Putin sat beside US President George W. Bush, France’s Jacques Chirac and China’s Hu Jintao at the Moscow parade, underscoring how much Russia’s global relationships have shifted.
