Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the West of forgetting the truth about World War II on Thursday in his annual speech before the Victory Day parade in Moscow’s Red Square. In the current context of confrontation with countries that support Ukraine, he assured that Russian nuclear forces are always prepared.
As it snowed in Moscow, Putin said that Russia does not want a confrontation with Western countries. “Russia will do everything possible to avoid a global collision, but we will not allow ourselves to be threatened,” the Kremlin chief said.
And he assured that Russia will not allow the outbreak of a world conflict despite “Western revanchism.”
Putin recalled Russia’s alliance with Western countries during World War II. ”Russia has never underestimated the importance of the second front and the help of the allies in World War II. “Our country honors the courage of all the soldiers of the anti-Hitler coalition, the courage of the underground, the courage of the people of China,” he assured.
On the contrary, he noted that “today we are seeing how the West is trying to erase the truth about the war” against Nazi Germany. But he recalled that “the fate of humanity” was decided in the great battles on Soviet territory, and he recalled the battles near Moscow, Leningrad, Kursk, Rzhev, Stalingrad, Kharkiv, Minsk, Smolensk and Kyiv.
Russia marks this Thursday, May 9, the 79th anniversary of the Soviet victory against Hitler’s Germany in the Great Patriotic War, perhaps on the coldest Victory Day since 1945, according to meteorologists.
Putin thus presided over the largest civil holiday in Russia two days after taking office for the fifth time as president of Russia after winning the elections last March decisively (more than 87% of the votes), but without real opposition.
The Russian president also recalled in his speech “Russian strategic forces,” which include nuclear warheads, “are always ready for combat.”
Nuclear rhetoric, present regularly since the conflict with Ukraine began and Western countries turned to help it, returned last Monday. That day, Putin ordered the preparation of nuclear exercises with tactical nuclear weapons in response to the “threats” against Russia that Moscow has seen in statements from several Western leaders. Specifically, those of the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, on the possibility of sending NATO troops to Ukraine; and those of the British Foreign Secretary, David Cameron, on Ukraine’s right to use weapons provided by the United Kingdom to attack Russian territory.
According to the Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, “more than 9,000 people and 70 combat machines” will parade through Moscow’s Red Square on May 9.
Yars strategic missiles and launchers of the Iskander-M tactical missile systems have been deployed in the center of Moscow, precisely in a week in which Moscow has increased its nuclear rhetoric against the West.
S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems, as well as BTR-82A armored personnel carriers, have also passed before the rostrum located next to the Kremlin wall.
According to the tradition of recent years, the mechanized column has been led by a World War II tank considered already mythical here, a T-34.
As for personnel, the parade includes various types of forces, in addition to students from the Suvorov and Nakhímov military academies, the Army Music Academy, military women and Cossacks, he said a week ago. Also units fighting in the Russian military campaign in Ukraine, which began in February 2022.
In addition to Moscow, the Victory Day military parade is celebrated this year in 25 cities in Russia. In another 314, there will also be more modest commemorative events. Shoigu estimated the number of soldiers marching throughout the country this year at 150,000. Around 2,500 combat vehicles are also displayed. Several towns in the European part of Russia, near Ukraine, including annexed Crimea, suspended parades for security reasons.
”Russia is going through a difficult period. The fate of the homeland and its future depends on each of us,” Putin said before assuring that all those who are fighting on the Ukrainian front are Russian heroes.
”All those participating in the ‘special military operation’ are our heroes. “We bow in admiration before your firmness,” declared the Russian president.
”Together we are ensuring a free and secure future for Russia. Victory Day unites all generations,” she added.
It is the third Victory Day that Russia celebrates in the midst of an armed conflict with Ukraine. This time, with his troops clearly on the offensive. Having regained the initiative on the battle front after the failed Ukrainian counteroffensive last year, in recent months Russian missiles and drones have punished the facilities of the Ukrainian electrical grid.
Kyiv accuses Moscow of thus destroying civil infrastructure so that the Ukrainian population will be left without electricity and, next winter, without heat.
But Moscow says it is attacking electrical and military infrastructure to reduce Ukraine’s ability to produce equipment and “reduce its ability to send Western weapons and equipment to the line of contact.”
With the holiday of May 9, Russia wants to remind the world of the effort and sacrifice (27 million lives) with which the Soviet Union contributed to defeating Nazi Germany, as well as to show strong patriotism.
The war campaign against Ukraine has driven this feeling of patriotism to its all-time high in Russia. 94% of Russians confess themselves to be “patriots of their country”, according to a survey published in March by the Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM).
The first Victory Parade against Nazi Germany in Moscow’s Red Square took place on June 24, 1945, by decision of the Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin.
In January of that year, the Soviet Army launched an offensive against Berlin. On May 9 at 00:43 GMT the commanders in chief signed the act of unconditional surrender of Germany, which ended the Great Patriotic War.
Marshal of the USSR Konstantin Rokossovski led the parade on June 24, while the deputy commander-in-chief of the USSR, Marshal Georgy Zhukov, organized the parade. It was he who appealed to the nation that day, instead of Stalin.
Despite the significance of the date and celebration, the Victory parade was not observed every year. Yes, there was one in 1946 and 1947, but from 1948 it was suspended, although there were parades for other reasons, such as Labor Day, May 1.
The tradition of parades was resumed on the 20th anniversary of Victory, in 1965. The next events of this type were held in 1985 and 1990.
In the recent history of Russia, military parades in honor of Victory against Nazi Germany began in 1995. That year a law was passed according to which the May 9 parade became an annual event in Moscow and other cities of Russia. Russia. And it has only been altered by extraordinary events, such as in 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic forced the bulk of the military stoppage to be postponed to June 24. On May 9 there was only a discreet aerial parade and a simple and solitary Putin ceremony at the tomb of the unknown soldier.
Traditionally, the Victory Day parade is a time for Moscow to display international support or, as in these times we live in, display enmity. For the third consecutive year, Russia has not invited on this occasion leaders and ambassadors from the so-called “unfriendly countries”, that is, those that support Ukraine in the current war conflict, most of them from the West.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday that this “does not apply to representatives of public organizations of veterans of those states.”
The friendly countries of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, as well as those of Cuba, Laos and Guinea Bissau, do attend this annual event, noted presidential advisor Yuri Ushakov.
Putin ended his speech with “For Russia! For victory!” Then the orchestra played the national anthem and the cannons fired their salvos next to the Kremlin walls.
