Moscow marks Victory Day with a Red Square parade under tight security : NPR
North Korean servicemen wait for the start of the Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Saturday, May 9, 2026, during celebrations of the 81st anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
Pavel Bedniakov/Pool AP
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Pavel Bedniakov/Pool AP
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed confidence in victory in Ukraine on Saturday as he oversaw a military parade on Red Square commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.
Security was tight in Moscow as Putin and several foreign leaders attended the parade, although a three-day U.S.-brokered ceasefire eased concerns about possible Ukrainian attempts to disrupt the festivities.
Putin, in power for more than a quarter century, used Victory Day, Russia’s most important secular holiday, to showcase the country’s military might and rally support for his military action in Ukraine, now in its fifth year.
Speaking at the parade, Putin praised Russian troops fighting in Ukraine, saying they “face an aggressive force armed and supported by the entire NATO bloc.”
“Victory has always been and will be ours,” Putin said as columns of troops lined up in Red Square. “The key to success lies in our moral strength, our courage and valor, our unity and our ability to endure and overcome all challenges.”
But this year, for the first time in nearly two decades, the parade took place without tanks, missiles and other heavy weapons, apart from a traditional flyby of combat planes.
Officials explained the sudden change in format as the “current operational situation” and said additional security measures had been taken in response to the threat of Ukrainian attacks.
For the first time, Saturday’s parade featured North Korean troops, a tribute to Pyongyang which sent its soldiers to fight alongside Moscow’s forces to repel a Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.
Previous ceasefires have not held
Russia declared a unilateral ceasefire for Friday and Saturday, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced a truce that was supposed to begin May 6, but neither held as the sides traded blame for continued attacks.
US President Donald Trump announced Friday that Russia and Ukraine had granted his request for a Saturday-Monday ceasefire and a prisoner exchange, saying the pause in fighting could be the “beginning of the end” of the war.
Zelensky, who said earlier this week that Russian authorities “fear that drones may fly over Red Square” on May 9, followed up on Trump’s statement by issuing a tongue-in-cheek decree allowing Russia to celebrate Victory Day on Saturday, declaring Red Square temporarily off-limits to Ukrainian strikes.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Zelensky’s decree a “silly joke.” “We don’t need anyone’s permission to be proud of our Victory Day,” Peskov told reporters.
Victory Day remains a rare point of consensus in Russia
The larger and better-equipped Russian army has made slow but steady progress along the 1,000-kilometer (over 600-mile) front line. Ukraine responded with increasingly effective long-range attacks, hitting Russian energy facilities, manufacturing plants and military depots. It has developed drones capable of hitting targets more than 1,000 kilometers deep in Russia, well beyond its capabilities before 2022.
Russian authorities warned that if Ukraine attempted to disrupt Saturday’s festivities, Russia would carry out a “massive missile strike on central kyiv.” The Russian Defense Ministry warned the civilian population and employees of foreign diplomatic missions of “the need to leave the city quickly.” The EU said its diplomats would not leave the Ukrainian capital despite Russian threats.
Russian servicemen stand in formation before the Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Saturday, May 9, 2026, during celebrations of the 81st anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
Pavel Bedniakov/Pool AP
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Pavel Bedniakov/Pool AP
Putin used Victory Day celebrations to encourage national pride and highlight Russia’s position as a world power. The Soviet Union lost 27 million people between 1941 and 1945 in what it called the Great Patriotic War, an enormous sacrifice that left a deep scar in the national psyche and remains a rare point of consensus in the country’s divisive history under communist rule.
“We celebrate it with feelings of pride and love for our country, with an understanding of our common duty to defend the interests and future of our homeland,” Putin said during the parade.
“Our soldiers suffered colossal losses, made a colossal sacrifice in the name of the freedom and dignity of the peoples of Europe, became the embodiment of courage and nobility, courage and humanity, and crowned themselves with the great glory of a grandiose victory.”
Victory Day parades on Red Square every year since 2008 have involved a wide range of heavy weapons – from armored vehicles to nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles. Smaller parades are held elsewhere in the country, but this time many have also been scaled back or even canceled due to safety concerns.
Authorities on Saturday ordered restrictions on all mobile internet access and text messaging services in the Russian capital, citing the need to ensure public safety. The government has methodically tightened internet censorship and implemented increasingly strict controls on online activity, provoking rumblings and rare public expressions of discontent.
King Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar of Malaysia, Laotian President Thongloun Sisoulith, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Belarusian authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko were expected to attend the festivities in the Russian capital. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, a member of the European Union, was due to meet Putin and lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier memorial just outside the Kremlin walls, but planned to stay away from the parade on Red Square.
