![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP22129287389885.jpg.jpg\")
The Russian leader has repeatedly accused Ukraine of harboring aggressive intentions, with support from the U.S. and its allies \u2014 claims Ukrainian and Western officials have denied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his speech at the parade, Putin again scolded the West for failing to heed Russian demands for security guarantees and a rollback to NATO\u2019s expansion, arguing that it left Moscow no other choice but to launch an action in Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Russian leader emphasized that the Russian troops were fighting for the country\u2019s security in Ukraine and called a minute of silence to honor the soldiers who fell in combat. Putin noted that some of the troops taking part in the parade previously have fought in Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said that the troops in Ukraine have been \u201cfighting for the Motherland, so that no one will forget the lessons of World War II and there will be no place in the world for hangmen, executioners and the Nazis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Victory Day that Russia marks on May 9 is the country\u2019s most important holiday, celebrated with military parades and fireworks across the county.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Soviet Union lost a staggering 27 million people in World War II, which it calls the Great Patriotic War. The conflict, which devastated the country and caused enormous suffering, has left a deep scar in the national psyche.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some in Ukraine and the West expected Putin to use his speech at the parade to switch from describing the Russian action in Ukraine that the Russian officials have called the \u201cspecial military operation\u201d to calling it a war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Putin didn\u2019t make any such shift in rhetoric or give any indication that the Kremlin may change its strategy and declare a broad mobilization to beef up the ranks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Kremlin has focused on Ukraine\u2019s eastern industrial heartland known as the Donbas, where Moscow-backed rebels have been fighting Ukrainian government forces since 2014. That conflict erupted weeks after Russia\u2019s annexation of Ukraine\u2019s Crimean Peninsula.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Russian military has rearmed and resupplied its forces withdrawn from areas near Kyiv and other regions in Ukraine\u2019s northeast and moved them to Donbas in an apparent attempt to encircle and destroy the most capable and seasoned Ukrainian troops concentrated there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" While lambasting the West, Putin gave no indication of a shift in strategies or made any indication that he was going to declare a broad mobilization, as some in Ukraine and the West have feared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":97407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":12,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,23,93,12,25],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1351],"class_list":["post-54737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-middle-column","category-news","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"O4LI6XRN6BGRDIKIUYER5NU4WI","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/2022\/05\/09\/russia-marks-wwii-victory-overshadowed-by-ukraine\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP22129311485632.jpg.jpg\")