LIVE VIDEO Putin waves nuclear weapons on “Victory Day”: “We will not allow anyone to threaten us. Strategic forces are always ready for battle”

Russia is celebrating the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II on Thursday, as relations with the West worsen and Russian troops advance into Ukraine, giving the Kremlin optimism of victory.

HotNews.ro transmits the most important moments of the parade:

10:24 a.m Putin referred to the war in Ukraine and the confrontation with the West.

“Russia is going through a difficult time, the future of the country depends on us,” he said.

10:19 a.m “We see how the truth about World War II is distorted,” Putin said. “Russia has never disparaged the role of the Allies in World War II,” he added.

“Russia will do everything to avoid a global confrontation,” he added. But “we will not allow anyone to threaten us,” the Kremlin leader emphasized.

“Strategic forces are always ready for battle,” he assured, referring to Moscow’s nuclear weapons.

10:15 Putin is giving a speech at these moments, addressed to the military forces and Russians in general, but also to the international community, which is watching the event.

10:10 Putin, the commander-in-chief of Russia’s armed forces, is inspecting the parade for the 21st time as more than 9,000 people and 70 pieces of equipment are on display.

“The column includes regiments, battalions and companies by types and branches of troops, crews from Suvorov (military school), Nakhimov (naval school), cadet schools, men from the Youth Army, women – military personnel, Cossacks and a combined military orchestra “, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said last week to Russian press agencies.

He specified that the participants of the “special military operation” – the formula used by Moscow for the war against Ukraine – are also marching this year. The parade ends with a flyover by the aerobatic teams of the Russian Air Force.

The justification for the war in Ukraine

Vladimir Putin, who came to power just eight years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, is expected to speak at the Victory Day parade in Red Square.

Officials announced that the parade itself will feature less military equipment than in parades that took place before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Putin presents his war as part of a battle with the West, which he accuses of forgetting the role the Soviet Union played in defeating Nazi Germany.

On Tuesday, the Kremlin leader began a new six-year term after a landslide victory in an election that critics described as rigged.

“I want to bow to our heroes, to the participants of the special military operation, to all those who are fighting for the Motherland,” Putin said as he took the oath.

Putin has promised victory in this war, in which Russian forces are advancing against Ukrainian forces despite hundreds of billions of dollars in aid from the United States and its allies.

But the end of the war is still far. The proof was the attacks attributed to the Ukrainians, which hit at least two Russian regions overnight.

No Western guests

The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in World War II, including many millions in the Ukraine, but eventually pushed the Nazi forces back to Berlin, where Hitler committed suicide and the red flag of Soviet victory was erected over the Reichstag in 1945.

The unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany took effect at 23:01 on 8 May 1945, marked as “Victory in Europe Day” by France, Britain and the United States.

It was already May 9 in Moscow, which became the Soviet Union’s “Victory Day” in what Russians call the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45.

Parades will take place in most major cities of Russia.

Unlike some of the parades in the past, there will be no Western leaders present in Moscow. Russia specified that ambassadors of “unfriendly” countries – generally the West and those that support Ukraine – were not invited to the parade.

However, the leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Cuba, Laos and Guinea-Bissau will be present.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine publishes reliable figures on the number of people they have lost in the war, although Western intelligence estimates place the total number of dead and wounded at several hundred thousand.

Russian officials warn the war in Ukraine is entering its most dangerous phase yet – Putin has repeatedly warned of the risk of a much larger war that could involve the world’s biggest nuclear powers.

The crisis has deepened in recent weeks: US President Joe Biden has approved $61 billion in aid for Ukraine, Britain has said Ukraine has the right to strike Russia with British weapons, and French President Emmanuel Macron has refused to rule out sending of French troops to fight the Russian forces.

Russia responded on Monday by announcing it would practice deploying tactical nuclear weapons in a military exercise, citing threats from France, Britain and the United States.