With Xi at his side, Putin marks WWII victory as Ukraine war grinds on
MOSCOW—Russia marked the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II on Friday with a major military parade that went off without any reports of Ukrainian attacks despite three years of devastating war.
President Vladimir Putin, the longest-serving Kremlin chief since Josef Stalin, stood beside China’s Xi Jinping, several dozen other leaders and Russian veterans on a roofed tribune beside Lenin’s mausoleum as Russian troops marched past.
Putin said Russia would never accept attempts to belittle the Soviet Union’s decisive role in defeating Nazi Germany, but that Moscow also recognized the part played by the Western allies in defeating Adolf Hitler.
“The Soviet Union took upon itself the most ferocious, merciless blows of the enemy,” Putin said.
Allied contribution
“We highly appreciate the contribution of the soldiers of the Allied armies, the members of the resistance, the courageous people of China, and all those who fought for a peaceful future to our common struggle.”
Putin made no criticism of the West and referred only in passing to the Ukraine war, Europe’s deadliest since World War II, but it haunted the celebration.
More than 11,500 troops were lined up in ranks on Red Square, including 1,500 who have fought in Ukraine.
Drones—the biggest technological innovation of the war—were paraded for the first time, as well as tanks and intercontinental Yars missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
Ukraine attacked Moscow with drones for several days this week, though there were no reports of major attacks on Moscow on Friday amid a 72-hour ceasefire declared by Putin.
The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in World War Two, including many millions in Ukraine, but pushed Nazi forces back to Berlin, where Hitler committed suicide and the red Soviet Victory Banner was raised over the Reichstag in 1945.
Nanjing Massacre
Chinese Communist Party historians say China’s casualties in the 1937-1945 Second Sino-Japanese War were 35 million.
The Japanese occupation caused the displacement of as many as 100 million Chinese people and significant economic hardship, as well as the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, during which an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 victims were killed.
Moscow and Kyiv do not publish accurate casualty numbers for the war in Ukraine, though US President Donald Trump, who says he wants peace, says hundreds of thousands of soldiers on both sides have been killed and injured.
Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender came into force at 11:01 p.m. on May 8, 1945, marked as “Victory in Europe Day” by Britain, the United States and France.
In Moscow it was already May 9, which became the Soviet Union’s “Victory Day” in what Russians call the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45.
