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(CNN) thousands They will line up on the streets of Moscow’s Red Square on Tuesday as part of Russia’s annual Victory Day parade. The Kremlin presents a front of military strength and grandeur in contrast to the weakening of military operations on the front lines of Ukraine.
However, some regions of Russia, many near the border with Ukraine, have scaled back preparations for the May 9 spectacle due to security concerns and a lack of military equipment to display.
The Moscow parade is a patriotic display of the Soviet Union’s role in defeating Nazi Germany in World War II. On May 8, 1945 (May 9 in the Moscow time zone), Germany signed the Instrument of Surrender in Berlin, ending hostilities in Europe. The Soviet Union suffered the most casualties of any country, with approximately 27 million soldiers and civilians dead.
The day is the most important day in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s calendar and has long been used to garner public support and demonstrate the country’s military might. He paid tribute to “those who, by their unparalleled feats on the battlefield and their selfless work in the rear, made it possible to crush the Nazi invaders and defend the freedom of their homeland.”
“Today, our moral obligation is to hold sacred the traditions of friendship and mutual aid left by our fathers and grandfathers, to not allow the historical truth about the Great Patriotic War to be distorted, and to protect the Nazis and their complicity. It is not to allow the legitimacy of the people and heirs to the current ideology,” the Kremlin said in a statement on Monday.
But in light of the two recent alleged Kremlin drone attacks, deepening rifts between Russian officials over war tactics, and the expected spring offensive in Ukraine, Moscow’s military has been on the rise since Russia launched its invasion. Tensions are at a record high ahead of the second parade.
Russian military personnel rehearse a Victory Day parade on Sunday as Moscow aims to show its military might.
Victory Day celebrations are coming up in some regions of Russia.
Putin has historically led the annual military parade on Red Square, displaying military hardware, including tanks, missiles and other weapons systems, before wreathing at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier near the Kremlin wall. A ceremony was held to dedicate who lost their lives in battle.
According to Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, he will also give an annual speech at the capital’s ceremony, where more than 10,000 people and 125 units of various types of weapons and equipment are expected to be on display.
Last year, the ministry said 11,000 people and 131 types of weapons took part in a military parade and an air show of 77 aircraft and helicopters.
World leaders such as former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan have participated in military parades over the past few years. However, these expressions of solidarity have faded in recent years after Putin’s invasion of Crimea in 2014 and the war in Ukraine severed diplomatic ties.
Moscow will come under pressure on Tuesday to step up its show of defense and unity after last week’s alleged drone attack on the Kremlin shattered the most powerful symbol of the Russian president.
Kiev and its Western allies exchanged troubling memos with Moscow after accusing Ukraine of carrying out orders from the United States in an assassination attempt on Putin.
The cause of the explosion is unclear, but the view of the symbolic attack on the Kremlin provided an opportunity to rally support for Putin from the Russians as critics continue to speak out against Moscow’s all-out aggression. .
On Monday, Russian oligarch Andrei Kovalev called the military operation in Moscow a “horrible war.”
“The whole world is against us,” he later said in a video speech shared on Telegram.
At the same time, tense relations between Russian officials exploded on Thursday after Wagner chief Evgeny Prigozhin threatened to withdraw troops from the city of Bakhmut due to insufficient support from the Kremlin. It was shown to.
Prigozhin appeared to have returned to his comments on Sunday, but the frenzied outburst showed a lack of morale as Russian forces struggled to break through a key battlefield in eastern Ukraine.
“Evil Returns”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday proposed moving Ukraine’s Victory Day parade a day earlier so as not to coincide with celebrations in Moscow.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of being the Nazis when he proposed moving Victory Day celebrations one day earlier in a bill submitted to parliamentarians to keep Kiev away from Kremlin celebrations.・Compared with Germany.
Like Russia, Ukraine traditionally commemorates its victory over the Nazis on May 9, but the day is increasingly associated with a parade in Moscow.
“May 8th is the day most countries in the world will remember the greatness of their victory over the Nazis,” Zelensky said on Monday.
“We will not allow the joint victory of the nations of the anti-Hitler coalition to be misappropriated, nor will we allow them to lie about the victory being achieved without the participation of any country or state.”
Comparing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to Hitler’s expansionist goals, Zelensky said the goals of both regimes were the same – “enslavement or destruction”.
“Unfortunately, evil is back,” he said. “Just as it was then, evil has invaded our cities and villages, and so it is now. increase.”
CNN’s Angela Dewan and Katharina Krebs contributed to the report.
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