Putin, at Scaled-Back Victory Day Parade, Calls Ukraine War ‘Just’ and Warns of NATO Aggression

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin used the nation’s most hallowed patriotic holiday on Saturday to frame his war in Ukraine as a righteous battle against an “aggressive force” backed by the full might of NATO, while presiding over the most subdued Victory Day parade in years due to security threats from Kyiv.

In a combative address to troops assembled on Red Square including, for the first time, soldiers from North Korea Putin invoked the Soviet Union’s crushing defeat of Nazi Germany to rally domestic support for his faltering invasion.

“The great feat of the generation of victors inspires the soldiers carrying out the goals of the special military operation today,” Putin said, standing before veterans and Kremlin officials. “They are confronting an aggressive force armed and supported by the entire NATO bloc. And despite this, our heroes move forward.”

He concluded with a stark declaration: “I firmly believe that our cause is just.”

The annual May 9 parade marks Russia’s most revered secular holiday, commemorating the Soviet Union’s sacrifice of 27 million citizens many of them from Ukraine—in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45. Once a dazzling display of military might featuring nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles and rows of tanks, this year’s event was conspicuously stripped of heavy armor. No tanks or missile launchers rolled over the cobblestones, a tacit acknowledgment of Ukraine’s growing drone and missile capabilities.

“In general, everything is as usual, except for the demonstration of military equipment,” Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters, downplaying the absence of hardware that once symbolized Russia’s power.

Trump Announces Three-Day Ceasefire, Seeks Extension

The pared-down parade unfolded against the backdrop of a fragile, short-term truce. After Russia and Ukraine accused each other of violating separate unilateral ceasefires over recent days, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a three-day ceasefire from Saturday to Monday, which both the Kremlin and Kyiv agreed to observe. The two sides also committed to exchanging 1,000 prisoners of war.

“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,” Trump told reporters in Washington, adding that he would “like to see a big extension” of the halt in fighting.

As of Saturday evening, neither Moscow nor Kyiv reported any violations of the ceasefire. However, Russian officials had warned that any Ukrainian attempt to disrupt the Red Square parade would trigger a massive missile strike on the Ukrainian capital. Moscow advised foreign embassies to evacuate their staff from Kyiv in anticipation of such a retaliation.

In a sardonic response, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued a tongue-in-cheek decree “allowing” Russia’s May 9 parade to proceed, stating that Ukrainian weapons would not target Red Square.

War Haunts Russia’s Patriotic Ritual

Security in Moscow was exceptionally tight. Reuters photographers noted armed soldiers stationed atop pickup trucks and extensive roadblocks around the city center, home to 22 million people in the greater metropolitan area. The heightened precautions reflect a creeping anxiety inside the Kremlin about the trajectory of a conflict now in its fourth year the deadliest in Europe since World War II.

The war has already killed or wounded hundreds of thousands of soldiers on both sides, reduced entire Ukrainian cities to rubble, stretched Russia’s $3 trillion economy, and plunged Moscow’s relations with Europe to their lowest point since the Cold War’s deepest freeze.

Even among pro-war Russian nationalists, unease is growing. Igor Girkin, a jailed former Federal Security Service officer and outspoken Kremlin critic from the nationalist camp, wrote on Telegram: “The crisis is still deepening gradually, but any sharp movement can send the economy (and not only the economy) into a tailspin.” Using a maritime metaphor, Girkin added that Russia’s leaders appeared more worried about being “kicked out of their cabins” than about the shipwreck ahead.

Shoigu Attends as Coup Rumors Swirl

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov this week dismissed Western media reports including from CNN citing an unidentified European intelligence agency that Putin’s security detail had been expanded due to fears of a coup or assassination. The reports had suggested that former defense minister and current Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu was seen as a potential leader of such a plot.

On Friday, Shoigu attended an online Security Council meeting chaired by Putin. On Saturday, he sat alongside other powerful officials at the Victory Day parade, making no public comment on the speculation.

The Historical Echo of Victory Day

Victory Day commemorates the moment Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender came into force at 11:01 p.m. on May 8, 1945 marked as “Victory in Europe Day” by Western allies. In Moscow, it was already May 9, which became the Soviet Union’s official remembrance of the 1941–45 war.

This year, however, the celebration was haunted by the ghosts of a different conflict. As fighter jets flew over the Kremlin’s towers and Putin laid flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the message was clear: the past grandeur of Soviet victory is being summoned to sustain a present war whose end remains nowhere in sight.

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