Russia marked the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II with a massive military parade on Red Square on Friday attended by President Vladimir Putin and a slew of foreign leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Victory Day, which is celebrated in Russia on May 9, is the country’s most important secular holiday.
A Red Square parade and other ceremonies underline Moscow’s efforts to project its global power and cement the alliances it has forged while seeking a counterbalance to the West amid the conflict Ukraine that has dragged into a fourth year.
World War II is a rare event in the nation’s divisive history under Communist rule that is revered by all political groups, and the Kremlin has used that sentiment to encourage national pride and underline Russia’s position as a global power.
The Soviet Union lost a staggering 27 million people in what it calls the Great Patriotic War in 1941-45, an enormous sacrifice that left a deep scar in the national psyche.
Festivities this year were overshadowed by Ukrainian drone attacks targeting Moscow and severe disruptions at the capital’s airports.
Russian flag carrier Aeroflot on Wednesday morning canceled more than 100 flights to and from Moscow, and delayed over 140 others as the military were repelling repeated Ukrainian drone attacks on the capital.
Russian authorities have tightened security ahead of the parade and cellphone internet outages have been reported amid electronic countermeasures aimed at foiling more potential drone attacks.
Speaking at the parade, Putin hailed Russian troops fighting in Ukraine, saying that “we are proud of their courage and determination, their spiritual force that always has brought us victory.”
The Russian leader has declared a unilateral 72-hour ceasefire starting Wednesday to coincide with the Victory Day celebrations, but warned that Russian troops will retaliate to any attacks.
Moscow has been reluctant to accept a US-proposed 30-day truce that Ukraine has accepted, linking it to a halt in Western arms supplies to Ukraine and Kyiv’s mobilization effort, conditions Ukraine and its Western allies have rejected.
Ukrainian authorities reported scores of Russian strikes on Friday that killed at least two people in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions and damaged buildings.
As the Red Square parade and other festivities unfolded in Moscow, dozens of European officials were meeting in Lviv, in western Ukraine, to endorse the creation of a special tribunal tasked to prosecute Russian officials accused of war crimes.