Russia’s military action in Ukraine has prevented aggression, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a speech at a military parade in Red Square on the 77th anniversary of his victory over Nazi Germany.
“Open preparations have been made for another criminal operation (in the Donetsk Basin) to invade our historic lands, including the Crimea. Kyiv has announced the possibility of acquiring nuclear weapons, and the NATO bloc has begun active military development in the areas adjacent to us,” Putin said.
“In this way, a threat that is completely unacceptable to us has been created right on our borders,” he added.
Putin said, “it was all about the inevitable clash with the neo-Nazis, the banderists” who were supported by the United States and others.
“I repeat, we have seen the military infrastructure unfold, that hundreds of foreign consultants have started work and that NATO countries regularly supply state-of-the-art weapons. The threat has grown day by day. Russia has given a proactive response to the aggression. It is forced, it was timely and the only right decision – the decision of a sovereign, strong, independent country, “
– Putin declared.
The Russian president, who no longer seems to have reckoned with Ukraine’s sovereignty in his speech, said soldiers in the Donetsk Basin and the Russian army were “fighting on their own land where their ancestors had defeated the enemy.” He added that “they are fighting for the future of their homeland,” that no one should forget the lessons of World War II, and that “there should be no place in the world for executioners, penitentiaries, and Nazis.”
He said the parade will also feature soldiers who came directly from the battle zone, where today soldiers of different nationalities in Russia “cover each other as brothers and sisters” in the fight, defending what their fathers and great-grandfathers fought for.
“The supreme meaning of their lives has always been the prosperity and security of our country. For us, and for their heirs, loyalty to our homeland is the highest value, a reliable pillar of Russia’s independence,” the president said. which shattered Nazism.
Putin preached a minute’s silence in memory of those who lost their lives in World War II, but also those who were burned alive in May 2014 at the House of Trade Unions in Odesa and the civilians killed in the Donetsk Basin and those killed in the fighting.
Foreign leaders did not attend this year’s parade, which was held in the shadow of the war in Ukraine, which the Kremlin spokesman justified by the fact that this year is not a round anniversary. On Monday, a small number of personnel and less military equipment marched through Red Square than last year. Against the 191 military vehicles deployed in 2021, 131 rolled through the central square of the Russian capital this year, and against the 12,000 people, 11,000 soldiers, guards, Cossacks, cadets, and youth activists marched.
Due to weather conditions, the air component of the Moscow parade, in which 77 planes and helicopters would have taken part, was left out. It could be seen in the tests that one of the elements of this would have been that eight MiG-29 fighter jets pull over Moscow in a Z-shape. The Z is one of the distinguishing symbols of the Russian forces involved in the invasion of Ukraine.
On the anniversary, a military parade was held in 28 Russian cities, attending more than 65,000 people and showcasing about 2,400 weapons and other military equipment.
In most Russian regions, after a two-year forced hiatus due to the coronary virus epidemic, the Immortal Regiment march is held again, with descendants marching with portraits of Soviet soldiers who took part in World War II and front-line workers. For this year’s marches, which are expected to involve hundreds of thousands, a portrait of Russian soldiers killed in intervention against Ukraine will also appear.
There will be no commemoration for security reasons this year in the counties of Kursk, Belgorod, and Voronezh, which border Ukraine. On the occasion of the anniversary, concerts and folk festivals will be held throughout the country, which will be closed by fireworks.
MTI: Demeter Demeter
Picture: illustration.
