Putin celebrates his most lackluster military parade with Zelensky's permission

MoscowThis year's Victory Day military parade will be remembered for two circumstances. The first, Vladimir Putin's fear, which led him to turn his showcase of military power into a minimal and unprecedented spectacle: without tanks or missiles, practically without foreign guests and without Western media. The second, Volodymyr Zelenskyy's mockery, who, urged at the last minute by Donald Trump, desisted from threatening Red Square with his drones and signed a sarcastic decree to “allow” the Russian celebration this Saturday.

Despite the three-way truce, which is due to be extended until Monday, the event had already been conceived as lackluster due to the psychosis of a Ukrainian attack and lasted less than 50 minutes, the shortest in modern history. The Russian president appeared with his usual solemnity and, during the traditional speech, drew a parallel between the veterans of World War II and the combatants of the war in Ukraine, appealing to the sacrifice of the entire people to achieve the defeat of the enemies. “The great feat of the victorious generation inspires the soldiers who are carrying out special military operations today,” Putin said, adding: “They are facing an aggressive force armed and supported by the entire NATO bloc, and despite this, our heroes are advancing.” “Our cause is just. Victory has been and always will be ours,” concluded the supreme commander of the Russian army, despite this being the fifth Victory parade without victory in Ukraine.

Unlike the last edition, which coincided with the eightieth anniversary of the Soviet triumph over Nazi Germany and in which Putin boasted about the weaponry used in the war in Ukraine (T-90 tanks, Iskander missiles, or S-400 air defense systems), this time only columns of soldiers marched through the center of Moscow, including for the first time a representation of North Koreans who fought in the Russian region of Kursk and who wielded silver rifles. The only display of military equipment was the projection of a video with drones and nuclear weapons. And, to conclude, a modest aerial display by acrobatic planes drew the Russian flag in the cloudy sky of the capital.

On the stands, if last year almost thirty international leaders, such as Xi Jinping, Lula da Silva, Nicolás Maduro or Miguel Díaz-Canel, acted, in a way, as human shields, this time only the heads of state of five countries have watched the parade with Putin: the president of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko; the president of Laos, and the sultan of Malaysia, in addition to the leaders of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, who initially were not supposed to travel to Moscow but joined the list on Friday afternoon. Zelenski had recommended all of them not to attend the celebrations.

Foreign television stations, which had never missed the event, could not record the occasion after the presidential administration revoked their previously granted accreditation. The official broadcast of Russian television was not offered live, but was broadcast with a delay of about a minute in order to have room in case of any setback. Security measures in the Kremlin in the city center have also not been relaxed. Soldiers have continued to stand guard with machine guns pointed at the sky, the streets and metro stations near Red Square have been emptied, and mobile internet has not worked since early morning in the hope of hindering drone flights.

Zelensky's ‘joke’

But no drone has approached the heart of Moscow. After a week of psychosis and crossed threats, it was finally Trump who had to come to Putin's rescue and put a stop to Zelensky. The Ukrainian president had been threatening the possibility of attacking the military parade after Russia had not respected a first ceasefire promoted by Ukraine last Wednesday. This, despite the fact that the Kremlin had warned that if Kyiv dared to spoil the Victory Day celebration, it would respond with a massive bombing of the Ukrainian capital.

Zelensky's concession has cost Putin a prisoner exchange, a thousand per side, and above all, that Ukraine has been able to sell it as a measure of grace in the face of the Russian plea. The Ukrainian leader issued a decree in which he specified that he “authorized” the parade for a “humanitarian purpose” and that he specifically excluded Red Square from the range of use of his weapons for the duration of the event. The mockery has not pleased the Kremlin at all, which has called it a “farce” and has stated that it “does not need anyone's permission” to celebrate its most sacred holiday. Zelensky has won a victory in a psychological battle, but Putin remains convinced that he will win the war.