The Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that next week’s annual Victory Day parade will be conducted without tanks, missiles, or other heavy military equipment, due to the “current operational situation” in Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov more explicitly blamed the threat of “terrorist activity” from Ukraine as the reason for scaling back the parade.
“All measures are being taken to minimize the danger,” Peskov said.
Victory Day is Russia’s holiday to commemorate victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. During the quarter-century reign of nationalist strongman Vladimir Putin, the event has increasingly become an opportunity to push a revised version of history in which Russia almost single-handedly defeated the Germans.
This became particularly evident after 2022, as Russia’s erstwhile World War II allies in Europe and the United States turned against Putin for invading Ukraine. Putin uses Victory Day for a propaganda counteroffensive, likening the Ukrainians
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