Red Square parade but no victory for Putin to offer

Russian president Vladimir Putin used his country’s biggest patriotic holiday to justify his war in Ukraine but did not declare even a limited victory.

He oversaw a Victory Day parade on Moscow’s Red Square yesterday, marking the Soviet Union’s role in the 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany, as his forces pressed their offensive with few signs of progress.

His much-anticipated speech offered no new insights into how he intends to salvage the grinding war, and instead stuck to allegations that Ukraine posed a threat to Russia.

He said: “The danger was rising by the day. Russia has given a pre-emptive response to aggression. It was forced, timely and the only correct decision.”

He steered clear of battlefield specifics, failing to mention the battle for the southern port of Mariupol and not even uttering the word Ukraine.

Meanwhile, intense fighting raged in Ukraine’s east, the vital Black Sea port of Odesa in the south came under bombardment again, and Russian forces sought to finish off the Ukrainian defenders making their last stand at a steel plant in Mariupol.

Mr Putin has long bristled at Nato’s creep eastward into former Soviet republics, and argued that Russia had to invade Ukraine before an “inevitable” clash.

Ukrainian leaders and Western backers have denied that Kyiv or Nato posed a threat.

As he has done all along, Mr Putin falsely portrayed the fighting as a battle against Nazism, thereby linking the war to what many Russians regard as their finest hour.

The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in what Russia refers to as the Great Patriotic War.

He also sought to depict the offensive under way for control of the Donbas region as a fight on Russia’s “historic lands”.

He has long sought to deny Ukraine’s own 1,000year history.

Many analysts had suggested Mr Putin might use his speech to declare some sort of victory to counter discontent over Russia’s heavy casualties and the punishing effects of sanctions.

Others suggested he might declare the fighting a war and order a nationwide call-up of reservists.

“Without concrete steps to build a new force, Russia can’t fight a long war, and the clock starts ticking on the failure of their army in Ukraine,” tweeted Phillips O’Brien, professor of strategic studies at St Andrews University.

Despite Russia’s efforts to crack down on dissent, anti-war sentiment has seeped through.

A few protesters were detained around the country on Victory Day, while editors at one pro-Kremlin media outlet revolted by briefly publishing a few dozen stories criticising Putin and the invasion.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky declared in his own Victory Day address his country would defeat the Russians.

“Very soon there will be two Victory Days in Ukraine,” he said in a video.

He added: “We are fighting for freedom, for our children, and therefore we will win.”

The Ukrainian military warned of missile strikes and some cities imposed curfews or warned people not to gather in public.

SHOW OF POWER: Russian president Vladimir Putin is surrounded by loyal generals as troops and armour parade through Red Square in Moscow.