President Vladimir Putin hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping and several other world leaders on Friday as Russia marked the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Second World War with a massive military parade on Red Square.
Mr Putin evoked the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany to rally his country round the Ukraine offensive. Victory Day, which is celebrated in Russia on May 9, is the country’s most important secular holiday.
The Kremlin said military units from 13 countries, including China, were taking part in the parade, along with Russian troops.
Mr Putin said Russia will always remember and appreciate the Allied contribution to victory in the Second World War, in which the Soviet Union lost 27 million people.
Russia highly appreciates the contribution to the victory of resistance fighters, Allied armies and the “courageous people of China”, he said.
Addressing the crowds gathered to watch the parade, he said that the “whole” of Russia backs the Ukraine offensive. The parade was held amid tight security to guard against Ukrainian attacks after three years of war.
"The whole country, society and people support the participants of the special military operation," Mr Putin said, adding: "We are proud of their bravery and determination, of the fortitude that has always brought us only victory.”
Echoing language regularly used to justify his three-year offensive on Ukraine, he continued: "Russia has been and will remain an indestructible barrier against Nazism, Russophobia and anti-Semitism.”
Security
Russian authorities tightened security ahead of the parade and phone blackouts were reported amid electronic countermeasures aimed at foiling more potential drone attacks.
For the first time, Russia was parading drones, the biggest technological innovation of the Ukraine war, Russian state television said.
Channel One said the Lancet drone and the Geran-2 drone would be among those shown off in the parade.
The ZALA Lancet drone is a loitering munition used for both strike and reconnaissance missions, which has been reported to have attacked and destroyed numerous pieces of Ukrainian military hardware, including tanks and a military jet.
The Geran-2 drone is a Russian-made suicide or kamikaze drone whose design originated in Iran where an earlier version was made. They have been used to target Ukrainian energy infrastructure and Kyiv has accused Moscow of using them to hit residential buildings too.
In Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on allies to help it resist Russia, which now controls about a fifth of Ukraine.
"Evil cannot be appeased. It must be fought," Mr Zelenskyy said, according to the Kyiv Post. He criticised Moscow's Victory Day parade. "It will be a parade of cynicism. There is just no other way to describe it. A parade of bile and lies."
Ukraine attacked Moscow with drones for several days this week, although there were no reports of major attacks on Russia on Friday amid a 72-hour ceasefire
Mr Putin declared the unilateral ceasefire, which started on Wednesday, to coincide with the Victory Day celebrations. Moscow has been reluctant to accept a US-proposed 30-day truce that Ukraine has accepted, linking it to a halt in western arms supplies to Ukraine and Kyiv’s mobilisation effort, conditions Ukraine and its western allies have rejected.
Red Square
Mr Putin, the longest-serving Kremlin chief since Josef Stalin, stood beside Mr Xi, several dozen other leaders and Russian veterans in a roofed grandstand beside Vladimir Lenin's mausoleum on Red Square as Russian troops marched past.
Defence minister Andrei Belousov inspected 11,000 troops – including many who have fought in Ukraine – and congratulated them to roars of approval.
The Kremlin said the attendance of Russian allies such as Mr Xi, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and several dozen leaders from the former Soviet Union, Africa, Asia and Latin America shows Russia is not isolated even if Moscow's former Second World War western allies want to stay away. From Europe, the leaders of Serbia and Slovakia were attending.
-
Russian soldiers take part in the Victory Day military parade, marking the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Second World War, in Moscow's Red Square. EPA -
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping attend the parade. Reuters -
Russia's commander of ground troops, Oleg Salyukov, led 11,000 troops into Red Square, where they were inspected by Defence Minister Andrei Belousov. AP -
Russian soldiers march in columns. Reuters -
Mr Putin addressed Russia's military, veterans and international leaders. Reuters -
Chinese soldiers taking part in the parade in Red Square. Reuters -
Russian service members. Reuters
The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in the Second World War, including many millions in Ukraine, but pushed Nazi forces back to Berlin, where Adolf Hitler committed suicide and the red Soviet Victory Banner was raised over the Reichstag in 1945.
For Russians – and for many of the people of the former Soviet Union – May 9 is the most sacred date in the calendar, and Mr Putin has sought to use memories of the Second World War to unite Russian society.
Chinese Communist Party historians say China's casualties in the 1937-1945 Second Sino-Japanese War were 35 million. The Japanese occupation caused the displacement of as many as 100 million Chinese people and significant economic hardship, as well as the horrific 1937 Nanjing Massacre, during which an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 people were killed.
