President Vladimir Putin declared on Tuesday that Russians were unified in a “sacred” war with the West over Ukraine that would end in victory and accused the U.S. and its allies of forgetting the Soviet victory over the Nazis in World War Two.
Putin had often compared the conflict in Ukraine, which he portrays as a defensive measure against a West that seeks to split up Russia, to the danger Moscow faced when Adolf Hitler attacked the Soviet Union in 1941.
“The decisive battles for the fate of our Motherland have always become patriotic, all-national and sacred,” the 70-year-old president addressed veterans and troops on Red Square for the Victory Day procession.
“A real war has again been unleashed against our homeland,” he stated.
Putin praised the Russian military fighting for Ukraine’s future against a West that had forgotten the Soviet Union’s role in conquering Nazi Germany.
The nation united behind our soldiers. He continued, “Everyone is ready to help, praying for you” in the Kremlin’s “special military operation.”
Putin cheered, “Russia, our valiant Armed Forces, for victory!”
Red Square cheered, with a cannon salute and the Russian national song, but with a significantly reduced military display and no aviation. One tank competed.
The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in World War Two, including millions in Ukraine, but finally forced Nazi troops back to Berlin, where Hitler committed suicide. The crimson Soviet Victory Banner was flown over the Reichstag in 1945.
Kyiv and its supporters accuse Putin of conducting an unjustified war in Ukraine to capture land. They refute Putin’s contention that NATO’s extension to Russia’s borders threatens its security or justifies Moscow’s incursion.
According to a collection of supposed U.S. intelligence papers, 354,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers were killed or injured in the 15-month Ukraine war, which might go until 2023.
No Western leaders attended Tuesday’s much-reduced parade, less than a week after Russia claimed Ukraine had attacked the Kremlin with two drones to murder Putin. Kyiv denied participation.
Putin claimed “Western globalist elites” were promoting Russophobia and militant nationalism, while the Ukrainian people were “hostages to a state coup” and Western goals.
Putin honored the US, British, and Chinese forces that battled the Nazis and the Japanese in World War Two.
The defeat of Nazi Germany and the 1812 defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte are Russia’s greatest military victories, yet both Western invasions alert Russia to its Western frontiers.
Putin added, “We want to see a peaceful, free, and stable future,” adding that Soviet army memorials were being removed in other nations.
“We have repulsed international terrorism, we will protect the inhabitants of Donbas (in eastern Ukraine), we will ensure our security,” Putin stated in Red Square, surrounded by leaders of many ex-Soviet countries.
He didn’t address Russia’s problems as it prepares for a big Ukrainian counter-offensive or offer a strategy.
