Ukraine: Russia defends itself, says Putin, celebrating the Nazi defeat of 1945
Vladimir Putin proclaimed, Monday, May 9, that his army was fighting in Ukraine to defend “the fatherland” against an “unacceptable threat”, a speech to fuel the patriotism of the Russians and their support for this conflict.
“I address our armed forces: you are fighting for the fatherland, for its future,” Putin said in a speech in Red Square followed by the traditional and symbolic May 9 military parade marking the victory. about the Nazis in 1945 and the sacrifice of millions of Soviets.
Two and a half months after the start of the offensive in its Ukrainian neighbor, the fighting is concentrated in the Donbass (east), Russia having had to revise downwards its ambition to take the country in the face of fierce resistance from the Ukrainians, armed by Westerners.
The Russian president tries to place the conflict in Ukraine in the straight line of 1945, constantly qualifying the opponent as a neo-Nazi.
In front of the thousands of soldiers taking part in the parade in the shadow of the red walls of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin reconsidered his decision to attack Ukraine on February 24, repeating that kyiv was preparing an attack against the pro-Russian separatists of Donbass, wanted to equip with the atomic bomb and was supported by NATO.
“An absolutely unacceptable threat was forming, directly on our borders,” he said, again accusing his neighbor of neo-Nazism and calling his offensive a “preventive response” and “the only good decision”.
« Z »
Since Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, the May 9 parade has celebrated both the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany and the rediscovered Russian power after the humiliation of the fall of the USSR.
In Moscow, the police, deployed on the parade route through the city center, wore the letter “Z” on their right shoulder, which has become a symbol of supporters of the offensive in Ukraine, because it adorns the vehicles of units deployed in the conflict.
During the parade in Novosibirsk, Siberia, Z-stamped World War II vehicles rolled through the city.
Mr. Putin placed May 9 at the heart of Russian patriotism, as the USSR lost up to 27 million of its citizens in the war.
Faced with this terrible record, the Russian president stressed on Monday that Russia’s duty was to avoid a new world war, while many fear that the conflict in Ukraine will degenerate.
“Our duty is to keep the memory of those who crushed Nazism (…) and to do everything so that the horror of a global war is not repeated,” he said.
Just before the speech, at 10 a.m. (0700 GMT), when the bells of the Kremlin’s Spasskaya Tower rang, Army Chief Oleg Salyukov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reviewed the troops in command convertibles, Aurus.
March of the “Immortals”
A few minutes earlier, Vladimir Putin had arrived on the official platform, shaking hands with World War II veterans, chests heavy with medals.
After his speech, 11,000 soldiers, dozens of vehicles, including strategic missile launchers, tanks passed through Red Square. Among them, units returning from the Ukrainian front.
The aerial part had to be canceled due to unfavorable weather, when we were supposed to see the “plane of the Apocalypse”, an Ilyushin Il-80 designed for the Russian leaders in the event of an atomic war.
Finally, always to mark the victory of 1945, marches of the “regiment of immortals” take place across the country, demonstrations during which the participants carry the portraits of the veterans of the “Great Patriotic War” of 1941-1945.
In Moscow, this demonstration, which will go to the Kremlin, must, according to the town hall, bring together a million people.