Scaled-back Victory Day parade held in Moscow
Key takeaways
- Russia marks downsized Victory Day parade as Putin pledges victory in Ukraine ‘special military operation’.
- xwhatsapp-strokecopylinkgoogle Add Al Jazeera on Googleinfo Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a ceremony to lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by the Kremlin Wall in central Moscow.
- Soldiers and sailors, some of whom have served in Ukraine, marched and chanted as President Vladimir Putin looked on, seated alongside Russian veterans in the shadow of Vladimir Lenin’s Mausoleum.
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Russia marks downsized Victory Day parade as Putin pledges victory in Ukraine ‘special military operation’.
xwhatsapp-strokecopylinkgoogle Add Al Jazeera on Googleinfo Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a ceremony to lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by the Kremlin Wall in central Moscow. [Alexander Nemenov/Pool via Reuters]By AFP, EPA and Reuters Published On 9 May 20269 May 2026Russia has held one of its most scaled-back Victory Day parades in years, citing the threat of attack from Ukraine, where a decisive victory for Moscow’s forces has remained elusive more than four years into the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II.
The May 9 parade on Moscow’s Red Square is Russia’s most revered national holiday, a moment to celebrate the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany and to commemorate the 27 million Soviet citizens, including many from what is now Ukraine, who were killed during the war.