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Post by Admin on May 8, 2022 13:44:16 GMT
Why is Russia's Victory Day so important to the country? - BBC News
208,806 views May 8, 2022 Victory Day in Russia is its biggest public holiday, commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War Two in 1945.
This year on the 9 May occasion, Russia has dismissed speculation that it will declare all-out war in Ukraine in the coming days as "nonsense".
Western officials have speculated that President Vladimir Putin could use the Victory Parade to announce an escalation of military action.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, however, said there was no truth to the rumours "at all".
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Post by Admin on May 9, 2022 13:48:46 GMT
Russia’s Putin blames West for war in Ukraine in Victory Day speech – BBC News
447,769 views May 9, 2022 Russian President Vladimir Putin has addressed a Victory Day parade in Moscow’s Red Square, saying that his forces in eastern Ukraine are “defending the motherland”.
He told crowds that the invasion of Ukraine – what he called a “special military operation” – was necessary and had been provoked by the West.
But Mr Putin did not make any major announcement relating to the war, including declaring victory or a full-scale mobilisation.
The annual Victory Day is one of the most important holidays in the Russian calendar and commemorates the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.
Parades have been taking place in 28 cities across Russia, involving 65,000 people and 2,400 items of military hardware.
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Post by Admin on May 9, 2022 17:14:11 GMT
President Vladimir Putin's "Victory Day" speech passed without a single direct mention of Ukraine or a declaration of all-out war as Western officials had expected.  On May 9, Russia marks the end of the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II with a grandiose military parade in Moscow's Red Square and a speech from the leader. Given the unique context of Monday's celebrations, Western officials expected Putin to use his speech to reveal new plans for the Ukraine invasion, which he has so far labeled a "special military operation." The UK defense secretary, Ben Wallace, told LBC Radio on April 28 that Putin "is probably going to declare on this May Day that 'we are now at war with the world's Nazis and we need to mass mobilize the Russian people.'"  Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said soon afterwards that it was "nonsense" that Putin would declare war. However, delivering his speech on Monday, Putin neither made any new declarations about his war on Ukraine nor mention the country by name at all. Putin praised Russian veterans who fought in World War II and in turn celebrated Russian troops currently fighting in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. The Donbas has largely been controlled by pro-Kremlin separatists since 2014. Putin went on to slam NATO expansionism and US aggression, and labeled Ukraine and its leaders as Nazis — claims he had used to justify invading Ukraine before entering the country. He has provided no evidence for the claim that Ukraine's leaders were waging genocide on their people, and the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is Jewish. |
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Post by Admin on May 9, 2022 18:04:17 GMT
The Russian leader oversaw a Victory Day parade on Moscow’s Red Square, with troops marching in formation and military hardware on display to celebrate the Soviet Union’s role in the 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany.
But his much-anticipated speech offered no new insights into how he intends to salvage the grinding war, and he instead stuck to allegations that Ukraine posed a threat to Russia, even though Moscow’s nuclear-armed forces are far superior in number and firepower.
“The danger was rising by the day,” Putin said. “Russia has given a preemptive response to aggression. It was forced, timely and the only correct decision.”
He steered clear of battlefield specifics, failing to mention the potentially pivotal battle for the vital southern port of Mariupol and not even uttering the word “Ukraine.”
Putin has long bristled at NATO’s creep eastward into former Soviet republics, and argued Monday that Russia had to invade Ukraine before an “inevitable” clash. Ukrainian leaders and their Western backers have denied that Kyiv or NATO posed any threat.
As he has done all along, Putin falsely portrayed the fighting as a battle against Nazism, thereby linking the war to what many Russians regard as their finest hour: the triumph over Nazi Germany. The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in what Russia refers to as the Great Patriotic War.
He also sought to depict the offensive underway for control of the Donbas region in the east — Moscow’s focus after its abortive attempt to storm the capital, Kyiv — as a fight on Russia’s “historic lands.” He has long sought to deny Ukraine’s own 1,000-year history.
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Post by Admin on May 9, 2022 19:13:20 GMT
Troops, tanks and missiles in Red Square for Russia’s Victory Day parade - BBC News
187,767 views May 10, 2022 Russian President Vladimir Putin has told a massive military parade in Moscow that Russian troops fighting in eastern Ukraine are “defending the motherland”.
Tanks, missiles and thousands of troops took to Red Square in the country's capital for the annual 9 May event, which commemorates the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.
In a separate video message marking 9 May, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country will win its war with Russia.
He accused Russia of imitating tactics used by the Nazis by deporting hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and flattening cities with aerial bombardments.
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