RUSSIANS CANCELING EVENTS FOR VICTORY DAY
The war in Ukraine has prompted officials across Russia to scale back annual celebrations of Victory Day, the country’s most important national holiday, with more than 20 cities forgoing military parades and organizers calling off a popular nationwide march to honor veterans.
Security concerns were most often cited for the rash of cancellations of today’s events, but some analysts suggested that the unease had as much to do with fears about domestic disturbances.
It is an unprecedented step in a country where the parades, which commemorate the triumph of the Soviet Union over Nazi Germany in World War II, have become a signature event for President Vladimir Putin.
Over the years, he has cast the day not just as a celebration of a historic victory but also of Russia’s presentday need to thwart the Western forces he says are still trying to destroy it. More recently, he has tried to wrap Ukraine into that narrative, falsely depicting it as a Nazi redoubt.
The country’s biggest parade, outside the Kremlin on Red Square, is still expected to be the usual display of raw military might, with row upon row of carefully choreographed soldiers marching amid weapons ranging from vintage tanks to intercontinental ballistic missiles. Putin is also scheduled to address the nation.
But outside of Moscow, a recent spate of drone attacks against military or infrastructure targets in cities like Sevastopol in Crimea, home port of the Black Sea fleet, as well as other attacks in the regions bordering Ukraine, have given officials pause. Not even the Kremlin has been immune, with two drones destroyed over Putin’s office last week.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine staked his nation’s own claim to the holiday, with an address on Monday drawing a parallel between World War II and the current war against Russian invaders. From now on, he said, May 9 will be called Europe Day, commemorating “the unity of all Europeans who destroyed Nazism and will defeat ruscism,” a Ukrainian term combining “Russian” and “fascism.”
“We fought then and we fight now so that no one ever again enslaves other nations and destroys other countries,” he said.
In Russia, various regional governors have cited security concerns in canceling Victory Day events.