Mr Putin and his allies have accused the West of provoking the conflict and have used airstrikes to try and disrupt shipments of weapons reaching Ukrainian soldiers in recent days. He will use his address to continue his efforts to frame the conflict as part of a wider struggle against Nato, which has supported Ukraine with arms and whose members have hit Russia’s economy and key individuals with sanctions. The second audience the Russian leader will speak to is the rest of the world. Though there has been dissent, protests have struggled to take off in the face of brutal police oppression and the information vacuum created over more than 20 years of Putinism has ensured opposition is stifled. This year more than any, Mr Putin – who is expected to give a speech – will look to harness the propaganda potential of the event and speak to two audiences.Īn intercontinental ballistic missile launcher is positioned in Red Square ahead of the parade (Picture: AP)ĭescribing the invasion as a ‘war’ has been outlawed and it must be publicly referred to as a ‘special military operation’, with the threat of imprisonment for those who speak out of turn. Why is this year’s Victory Day so crucial? World leaders are invited on special anniversaries but a British prime minister has not attended since John Major in 1995, nor has a US president visited since George W Bush in 2005. Mr Putin uses the occasion as a show of strength, overseeing proceedings surrounded by his generals, watching the tanks, troops and nuclear missile launchers roll past him. Vladimir Putin – pictured here in 2008 when he had swapped the presidential office for the role of prime minister – has made the parade a fixture of his rule (Picture: /REX/Shutterstock)įor decades, it has also served as a key propaganda set piece for the Russian government, whose official home is the Kremlin, the sprawling medieval complex which overlooks Red Square where the parade reaches its crescendo.īut the event does not only serve to remember the dead – it is an instrument to project a message to the living. Three-and-a-half years later, less than a fortnight after Adolf Hitler had taken his own life in a Berlin bunker, the Third Reich collapsed and the Russia stood on the cusp of becoming one of Europe’s superpowers. Many of those who marched through Moscow on their way to battle did not return. Nazi Germany’s forces were within 20 miles of where the Soviet leader stood as he waved to passing tanks, watching them proceed directly to the frontline. On November 7, 1941, Joseph Stalin stood in Red Square and spoke to the troops gathered before him.Įxactly 24 years after the October Revolution had swept away the Tsar and introduced communism to Russia, the new empire was under siege.
Will the Russian president use it as a platform to move the war into a new, bloodier phase – perhaps bringing him into direct conflict with the West? Why is Victory Day so important to Russia and Putin?
The crude marking used to distinguish tanks sent into Ukraine has become a pro-war emblem and adopted by pro-Kremlin warmongers.Īs the invasion continues, this year’s Victory Day parade takes on a totally new meaning.
The Z symbol will serve as a reminder throughout the ceremony of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Artillery vehicles and tanks and military vehicles rolling towards Red Square for Victory Day rehearsals on May 4 (Picture: AP)