Back Victory Day parade

Russia is holding a downsized Victory Day parade due to the threat of attack from Ukraine, where victory for Moscow's forces has proven elusive more than four years into the deadliest European conflict since World War II.

The 9 May parade on Red Square marks Russia's most revered national holiday - a time to celebrate the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany and to pay homage to the 27 million Soviet citizens, including many from Ukraine, who perished.

Once used to show off Russia's vast military, including its nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles, the parade this year will have no tanks or other military equipment rolling over the cobbles of Red Square.

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

He said: "The great feat of the generation of victors inspires the soldiers carrying out the goals of the special military operation today.

"They are confronting an aggressive force armed and supported by the entire NATO bloc.

And despite this, our heroes move forward."
"I firmly believe that our cause is just," he added later.

Soldiers and sailors, some of whom have served in Ukraine, marched and cheered as Mr Putin looked on, seated beside Russian veterans in the shadow of Vladimir Lenin's Mausoleum.

North Korean troops, who fought against Ukrainians in Russia's Kursk region, also marched.

Only a handful of foreign dignitaries were in attendance - most of them leaders of Russia's close allies.

Mr Putin received Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico in the Kremlin, the only EU leader who visited Moscow during the Victory Day celebrations.

Slovakia, a central European country dependent on Russian oil, is the most friendly state to the Kremlin in the EU.

"I know there were some difficulties with your trip to Moscow.

But the important thing is that you're here," Mr Putin told Mr Fico during the meeting.

A handful of European states refused to let Mr Fico's plane use their airspace on his way to Moscow.

Mr Fico did not attend the parade on Moscow's central Red Square.

He instead laid flowers on Friday at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier - Russia's main memorial to millions of Soviet soldiers who died fighting against Nazi Germany.

Trump wants 'big extension' to ceasefire
After Russia and Ukraine accused each other of violating unilateral ceasefires they had each declared over recent days, US President Donald Trump announced a three-day ceasefire from Saturday to Monday that was supported by the Kremlin and Kyiv.

The two sides also agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners.

"I'd like to see it stop.

Russia-Ukraine - it's the worst thing since World War Two in terms of life.

"Twenty-five thousand young soldiers every month.

It's crazy," Mr Trump told reporters in Washington.

He added that he would "like to see a big extension" of the ceasefire.

The Kremlin said the United States was "in a hurry" to secure a peace deal to end the Ukraine war.

"It is understandable that the American side is in a ‌hurry," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told state television reporter Pavel Zarubin.

"But the issue of a Ukrainian settlement is far too ⁠complex and reaching a peace agreement is a very long way with ‌complex details," he added.

Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022, had warned that any attempt by Kyiv to disrupt the Victory Day event would lead to a massive missile strike on the Ukrainian capital.

Moscow told foreign diplomats that they should evacuate Kyiv staff in the event of such an attack.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a tongue-in-cheek decree "allowing" Russia's 9 May military parade to proceed, adding Ukrainian weapons would not target Red Square.

Pictures showed soldiers with guns atop pickup trucks and roads blocked around the centre of the capital, which along with the surrounding region has a population of 22 million.

War in Ukraine haunts Russia’s parade
After Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, the Red Army eventually pushed Nazi forces back to Berlin, where Adolf Hitler killed himself and the red Soviet Victory Banner was raised over the Reichstag in May 1945.

Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender came into force at 11:01pm on 8 May 1945, marked as "Victory in Europe Day" by Britain, the United States and France.

In Moscow it was already 9 May, which became the Soviet Union's "Victory Day" in what Russians call the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45.

But this year's parade comes amid a wave of anxiousness in Moscow about the ultimate outcome of the conflict in Ukraine.

The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, left swathes of Ukraine in ruins and drained Russia's $3 trillion economy, while Russia's relations with Europe are worse than at any time since the depths of the Cold War.

"The crisis is still deepening gradually, but any sharp movement can send the economy (and not only the economy) into a tailspin," jailed pro-war Russian nationalist Igor Girkin, who has criticised the Kremlin for its conduct of the war, said in a post on Telegram.

Mr Girkin, a former Federal Security Service officer, used a naval analogy to say that Russia's leaders were more worried about being kicked out of their cabins than about a shipwreck.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed CNN and other Western media reports that Mr Putin's protection had been intensified because of fears of a coup or assassination.

Russian officials have dismissed reports of a coup plot as nonsense.

Just 21 years ago, Mr Putin sat beside US President George W Bush at the Moscow parade, along with France's Jacques Chirac and Chinese President Hu Jintao.

This year, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Malaysia's King Sultan Ibrahim and Laos President Thongloun Sisoulith will attend.