Vladimir Putin gave a chest-beating speech to his troops during Moscow’s Victory Day parade today – telling soldiers that they are now fighting for the security of the nation against what he called Western plans to invade.
Seeking to re-frame his war in Ukraine as a war between Russia and the West, he declared NATO to be the aggressor and said he is trying to deescalate the situation with a ‘special military operation’ which he declared to be ‘the only right decision’ against a ‘neo-Nazi’ regime in Kyiv.
He also sought to twist the truth of what is happening on the ground in Ukraine, hailing a day of ‘great victory’ despite Russia’s battlefield defeats and telling his men they are fighting a just war despite plentiful evidence of war crimes in occupied territories.
But he stopped short of what many had feared: An official declaration of war on Kyiv which would have allowed him to mobilise Russia’s military reserves and conscript civilians in order to escalate fighting across the border.
And a planned flyover by his ‘Doomsday jet’ – which would allow him to continue ruling Russia in the event of a nuclear blast – was also axed at the last minute, allegedly due to fears it could be attacked.
The parade itself is also downsized from previous years, featuring almost a third fewer vehicles than in 2020 because Russia has committed – and lost – so many of its ground forces in Ukraine.
Putin’s speech came after a parade through the streets of Vladivostok that featured tanks streaming Soviet banners and ‘Z’ symbols emblazoned on the site of motorbikes in the orange and black colours of the Saint George’s ribbon, the highest decoration of Imperial Russia.