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Digistoria – the most important events that happened on April 20
How the small navy of Ukraine manages to create problems for the huge Russian fleet
Bomb alerts in Russia, on a day of national mourning. Paralyzed airport in Moscow, people evacuated from a mall in St. Petersburg
15-year-old boy, a hero after the attack in Moscow. How he saved over 100 people from the inferno at Crocus City Hall
ISIS releases explicit footage of Moscow attack
A mayor from Gorj is inspired by Ceaușescu and Putin but is also a fan of Batman and Spider-Man
Moscow intentionally omits the huge losses inflicted on Romania by the USSR
Macron: If Russia wins in Ukraine, Romania and Moldova will be threatened
Vladimir Putin took a crowd bath before the Russian elections
Vladimir Putin began his speech on Victory Day by resuming attacks on the West. “The West is trying to distort the truth about World War II because it is meddling in colonial politics,” Vladimir Putin said.
However, he assured that Russia will do everything to prevent a global conflagration.
“We know what the exacerbation of such ambitions leads to. Russia will do everything to prevent a global clash,” Putin said in Red Square, after Defense Minister Serghei Shoigu reviewed the troops, writes Reuters. “But at the same time, we will not allow anyone to threaten us. Our strategic forces are always in a state of combat readiness,” he added, according to Agerpres.
Vladimir Putin appeared on the podium in front of Red Square, and the parade in honor of the 79th anniversary of Victory began with the greeting of the Minister of Defense, Serghei Şoigu, and the cheers of the soldiers. It was snowing in Moscow.
9,000 military personnel are taking part in the parade and, for the first time, including soldiers participating in the “special operation” in Ukraine, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Previously, the TASS agency claims, a T-70 tank, whose crew took part in the assault on the (Ukrainian) city of Melitopol in 1943, passed through the streets of the city during the Victory Day festivities. Melitopol is one of the cities conquered by the Russians after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Before the Victory Day parade in Red Square, Vladimir Putin personally met with foreign leaders invited as guests in the Kremlin Hall of Arms.
Among the regular spectators at the May 9 parade is Patriarch Kirill, a hopeful helper for Putin.
It is unusually cold in Moscow, with temperatures close to zero degrees. The spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, however, assured that the weather was never an obstacle for the Red Square ceremonies, according to the TASS agency.
Putin now presents the war as part of a holy war with the West, which he says ignores the role played by the Soviet Union in defeating Nazi Germany and the lesson that neither Napoleon Bonaparte nor Adolf Hitler could defeat Russia.
“I want to bow to our heroes, to the participants in the special military operation, to all those who fight for the Motherland,” Putin said when he took the oath for a new term as president on Tuesday.
The 71-year-old Kremlin chief has vowed victory in the 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.
Ukraine and the West say Putin is engaged in an imperial-style land grab and have vowed to defeat Russia, which currently controls about a fifth of Ukraine, including Crimea, and parts of four regions in eastern Ukraine. Moscow says these territories, which were once part of the Russian Empire, are now part of Russia again.
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 11:01 PM on 8 May 1945, marked as “Victory in Europe Day” by France, Britain and the United States. In Moscow, however, it was already May 9, which became the “Victory Day” of the Soviet Union in what the Russians call the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45.
Victory Day parades take place in all major cities across Russia’s 11 time zones.
Unlike some of the past parades, there are no Western leaders present. Russia specified that the ambassadors of “unfriendly” countries – generally the West and those that support Ukraine – were not invited to the parade.
Instead, the leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Cuba, Laos and Guinea-Bissau are present.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, Russian missiles hit infrastructure overnight, and in parallel, several drone attacks took place on Russian territory.
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 that the war in Ukraine is entering its most dangerous phase yet – Putin has repeatedly warned of the risk of a much larger war involving the world’s biggest nuclear powers. The crisis has deepened in recent weeks: US President Joe Biden signed a $61 billion aid package for Ukraine; Britain declared that Ukraine had the right to strike Russia with British weapons; and French President Emmanuel Macron refused to rule out sending French troops to fight Russian forces.
Russia responded on Monday by announcing it would practice deploying tactical nuclear weapons in a military exercise after what Moscow said were threats from France, Britain and the United States.
Publisher: AC
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