Russia will hold its annual military parade on 9 May commemorating the victory against Nazi Germany in 1945. The Ministry of Defence has announced that this year’s parade will take place with no military hardware, citing the “current operational situation” and concerns about drone attacks from Ukraine.
Moscow’s security no longer guaranteed
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Political scientist Ihor Petrenko writes in a Facebook post picked up by Glavkom (Ukraine):
“This week the Institute for the Study of War highlighted an important point: for the first time since the beginning of the war, Putin personally commented on the attacks on Russian oil refineries. Moscow had previously ignored such incidents or denied them because they undermine the propagandist narrative. Now a reaction was unavoidable. ... Last year in the run up to 9 May around 280 air defence systems were sent to Moscow, some from remote regions. This year, however, now that Ukrainian drones are regularly hitting their targets more than 1,500 km inside the border, even this no longer offers a guarantee.”
Putin’s got the jitters
MP Mykola Knyazhizkyi writes on Facebook (Ukraine):
“In 2023, the parade took place just a few days after drone attacks on the Kremlin. This parade is famous for including a T-34 tank that was rolled out of a museum as well as for using the presidents of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and several other countries as a kind of ‘human shield’. Because the whole of Russia – from the Baltic Sea to the Urals – is currently in turmoil, it’s unlikely that they will manage to find any foreign leader willing to provide ‘cover’ for Putin with their presence. All hopes rest on Fico. This is why Putin rang Trump – so that he will act as a guarantor of security and ensure that Ukraine refrains from attacking Russia for a certain period.”
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