Russia strikes back, says Vladimir Putin, celebrating Nazi defeat of 1945
Vladimir Putin said Monday morning that the Russian army is fighting in Ukraine to defend “the Fatherland” against an “unacceptable threat,” in a speech aimed at stoking Russian patriotism and support for this conflict.
“I turn to our armed forces: they are fighting for the fatherland, for its future,” Putin said at around 10:15 a.m. (9:15 a.m. Paris time) in a ten-minute speech in Red Square, followed by the traditional military parade on May 9, which marked the Victory over the Nazis in 1945 and the sacrifice of millions of Soviets.
In front of thousands of soldiers who took part in the parade in the shadow of the Kremlin’s red walls, Vladimir Putin reconsidered his decision to attack Ukraine on February 24 and reiterated that Kyiv was preparing an attack on the pro-Russian Donbass separatists equip with the atomic bomb and was supported by NATO. “An absolutely unacceptable threat was emerging right on our borders,” he said, again accusing his neighbor of neo-Nazism and calling the Russian attack a “pre-emptive response” and “the only good decision.”
Mr Putin placed May 9 at the center of Russian patriotism, when some 27 million Soviets died in World War II. Building on this horrific historical reality, the Russian president also stressed on Monday that it is Russia’s duty to avoid another world war amid fears that the conflict in Ukraine is escalating. “It is our duty to preserve the memory of those who crushed Nazism (…) and to do everything possible so that the horrors of global war are not repeated,” he said.
After his speech, 11,000 soldiers, dozens of vehicles, including strategic rocket launchers and tanks, marched through Red Square. Including units returning from the Ukrainian front. The air parade had to be canceled due to unfavorable weather, when the “Plane of the Apocalypse”, an Ilyushin Il-80 for the Russian leadership in the event of a nuclear war, could be seen there. .