"Russia’s ‘Future’ Depends on Troops in Ukraine" - President Putin

MOSCOW, Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a combative speech Tuesday attacking the West and claiming that Russia’s future depended on the outcome of the war in Ukraine as he attended a military parade on Red Square to mark Victory Day. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Victory Day parade in Moscow.

“Civilization again finds itself at a decisive, critical moment. A real war has again been launched against our motherland,” Putin told the assembled soldiers and guests. 

“We are proud of the participants of the Special Military Operation and everyone who is fighting on the frontline,” he said, using the Kremlin’s preferred term for Russia’s war in Ukraine.  

“There is nothing more important now than your military work. Today, the security of our country depends on you. The future of our statehood and our people depends on you.”

While the military parade passed off without incident, Russia’s Victory Day celebrations this year have been drastically scaled down because of heightened security concerns following a drone attack on the Kremlin last week and what is believed to be an imminent Ukrainian counter-offensive.  

The Kremlin has traditionally used Victory Day — a national holiday — for bombastic celebrations that promote patriotic unity and showcase the country’s military might.

But a string of defeats in Ukraine and the expected counter-attack by Kyiv’s forces mean this year’s event — the second since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022 — has been one of the most muted in Putin’s two-decade rule. 

Military parades have been canceled in over 20 Russian cities and not a single Immortal Regiment march — held in memory of those killed in World War II and usually attended by millions — will take place.

Despite the security issues, the Russian president was joined on Red Square by seven leaders of former Soviet republics: Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Kyrgyzstan’s President Sadyr Japarov, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, Uzbek leader Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedow. 

The attendance of six of these leaders was announced Monday after what appeared to be a last minute effort by the Kremlin to rally international support. 

Only Kyrgyzstan’s Japarov had confirmed his attendance in advance. 

Standing in front of military veterans and men in military uniform, Putin delivered a speech in which he conflated the current war in Ukraine with the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazism in 1945 and attacked the West. 

“The Western globalist elite are still asserting their exceptionalism, playing off people against each other and dividing societies,” Putin said.  

“They are provoking bloody conflicts and coups, they are sowing hatred, Russophobia and aggressive nationalism, they are destroying traditional family values that make a human a human.”

The military parade across Red Square featured thousands of Russian troops and equipment, including Russia’s Yars intercontinental ballistic missile system and the S-400 surface-to-air missile system. 

Unlike previous years, there was no military fly-past. 

After 14 months of fighting in Ukraine, Russia has little to show for its military campaign, with troops failing to take control of the disputed eastern city of Bakhmut, its military leadership riven by conflict and Kyiv preparing to go on the offensive. 

Russia fired 25 missiles at targets in Ukraine overnight, according to the Ukrainian Air Force, which said that 23 of the missiles were destroyed by air defense systems.