Russia has a smaller Victory Day parade | Stories of World Wars

Putin is due to speak at the commemoration of World War II, which was scaled back this year for security reasons.

Russia has started its annual Victory Day celebrations in Moscow to mark the defeat of Nazi Germany during World War II.

The demonstration, which was scaled back this year due to security concerns, began around 10am (07:00 GMT) in Red Square, with a military parade carrying the Russian flag.

Security was tight as President Vladimir Putin was due to speak at the event, which is considered Russia’s most important holiday.

Putin, who has been in power for more than a quarter of a century, has been using Victory Day to show off the country’s military might and support his war in Ukraine, now in its fifth year. But this year, for the first time in nearly 20 years, the parade will done without tanksmissiles and other heavy weapons, besides air combat missions.

Officials said that the sudden change in appearance was due to “current events” and pointed to the threat of an attack on Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said authorities would take “additional security measures”.

United States President Donald Trump announced on Friday that Russia and Ukraine have had it accepted his request for a cease-and-desist order run from Saturday to Monday and exchange prisoners, announcing that the end of the war could be “the beginning of the end” of the war.

Russia threatens Kyiv if Victory Day is disrupted

Zelenskyy, who said earlier this week that Russian officials are “afraid that drones could explode on Red Square” on May 9, followed Trump’s comments by issuing a mock order allowing Russia to hold Victory Day celebrations on Saturday, declaring that Red Square is temporarily off-limits to strikes in Ukraine.

Peskov dismissed Zelenskyy’s order as a “stupid joke.” “We don’t need anyone’s permission to be proud of our Victory Day,” Peskov told reporters.

Russian officials warned that if Ukraine tried to interfere with Saturday’s celebrations, Russia would carry out “massive missile strikes in the center of Kyiv”.

Victory Day is also observed in other former Soviet countries such as Belarus and Kazakhstan. The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in 1941-45 in what it calls the Great Patriotic War, a huge sacrifice that left a deep scar in the country’s psyche and remains a rare place of solidarity in the history of dividing the country under communist rule.