Moscow ramps up security as Putin presides over low-key Victory Day parade

Vladimir Putin has converted the annual May 9 Victory Day celebrations into his great ideological pillar, but that symbolism has now become an inconvenience for the Kremlin against the backdrop of battlefield reverses in its invasion of Ukraine. The Soviet Union, which sacrificed nearly 27 million lives during the Nazi onslaught in World War II and eventually cornered Adolf Hitler in Berlin, forcing him to kill himself, held only four parades in Red Square to mark the defeat of the Third Reich throughout in its entire history — in 1945, 1965, 1985 and 1990. In 1995, former Russian president Boris Yeltsin decreed the annual military parades would take place by law, but it was only from 2008 that they began to feature full displays of Moscow’s military might. Putin, who was born seven years after the fall of Berlin, will on Tuesday preside over the 17th Victory Day parade of his presidency surrounded by anti-aircraft batteries. The threat hanging over the event is of such concern to Russia’s security forces that Putin will not even hold the traditional reception for World War II veterans, in theory the main protagonists of the annual commemoration. Nor will the Russian president lead the citizens’ march as he did last year, when the war in Ukraine had been raging for over two months and appeared to be going largely according to the plans of Moscow’s military strategists. Most of the events scheduled to take place on Tuesday have been canceled for security reasons, while Russian forces launch wave after wave of air strikes against Ukraine.

The eve of the parade was another day of terror in Ukraine after 439 days of war. A wave of missiles and artillery barrages targeted several cities and regions. At least one civilian was killed and 16 more were wounded, according to the government of Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The Ukrainian Red Cross reported that a humanitarian aid warehouse in Odesa was destroyed and one of its mobile hospitals in Mykolaiv was damaged. Meanwhile, the governor of the Russian region of Belgorod said that four civilians had been wounded by a Ukrainian attack in the border town of Shebekino, one of the Russian localities hardest hit by the war.

As night fell on Monday, Kharkiv was targeted by at least six missiles, as EL PAÍS special correspondents in Ukraine’s second-largest city can confirm. Just before 10 p.m. the air raid sirens were raised. Shortly afterward, explosions were heard in various parts of the city. The regional military governor, Oleg Sinegubov, confirmed on his Telegram account that at least six S-300 surface-to-air missiles had been launched over Kharkiv, which stands around 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Russian territory. There were also explosions in Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia.

“Let it never be repeated,” is the motto that has been passed from generation to generation by those who lived through the Great Patriotic War, as Russia refers to the fight against Nazi Germany. Fewer and fewer survivors remain, and meetings with parents and grandparents who served and suffered in World War II have been gradually replaced by war-related paraphernalia in the streets and in schools, where children and adults wear the pilotka, the distinctive field cap worn by Red Army soldiers, as well as some emblems carried by Russian forces engaged in the Ukraine war today.

The militaristic hyperbole of Victory Day has come to be contemptuously termed pobedobesie by some sections of society. A mock battle was staged next to the Ministry of Defense on Monday, which sought to underline the most “spectacular” elements of the war, and in some schools — where lessons on the honor of dying for the motherland have been added to the curriculum — children have paraded in military uniforms and been given patriotic songs to sings, in which fallen soldiers become swans.

When asked if the president would receive veterans on Victory Day this year, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov answered with a brusque “no.” The last time World War II veterans were given their traditional prominence was in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic further isolated the Russian leader. This year Putin will also not take part in the Immortal Regiment, a march promoted by the authorities in which citizens carry photos of their ancestors. Last year, Putin marched through Red Square in the front row, surrounded by dozens of people, but this year he will not be as visible: the event has been canceled throughout the country for security reasons.

The alleged Ukrainian drone attack on the Kremlin a week ago has further heightened tension in Moscow. Police and National Guard officers have shut off the center of the capital. Anti-aircraft batteries have been mounted on the roofs of the main government buildings and the state media has not reported on parade rehearsals in order not to reveal any sensitive information. “All necessary measures are being taken to ensure security,” Peskov said.

Despite the unpopularity of Moscow’s war in Ukraine in former Soviet republics, the Kremlin has managed to convince some of their leaders to attend the military parade this year, among them Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinián, Tajikistan’s leader Emomali Rahmon and President Kasim-Yomart Tokáev of Kazakhstan, whose foreign policy has leaned toward Europe and Turkey over the past year and where Victory Day celebrations have been cancelled due to “technical reasons.”

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