Chinese troops walk with Russian forces while Xi joins Putin for the Victory Day Parade | Russia

Russian troops that fight in Ukraine marched with Chinese forces in Moscow Red Square to mark the 80th anniversary of the Nazi defeat of the Germanys during a celebration of the day of victory marked by a greater spectacle than in recent years.

After several days of victory on a scale with reduced military displays and few foreign guests, Vladimir Putin, addressed the greatest parade since his large -scale invasion in 2022 in Ukraine.

The Soviet Union took the most ferocious and ruthless blows of the enemy, said the Russian president about the victory over Nazi Germany, before turning to his invasion of Ukraine. Truth and justice are on our side. The whole country, society and people support participants in the special military operation, said Putin, using Kremlins' favorite term to describe war.

While Putin chaired the parade, the EU’s foreign ministers and British David Lammy went to Lviv in Ukraine where they announced the creation of a court for Russian war crimes. The assault of Russia cannot be pruned and therefore the establishment of this court is extremely important, said the first diplomat of the EUS, Kaja Kallas, during the visit.

The president of the Ukraines, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said that he expected European leaders to visit kyiv on Saturday, while the European allies declared during a meeting in Oslo that they supported an unconditional 30-day ceasefire in the war in Ukraine, which Moscow was reluctant to accept.

Moscow welcomed at least 27 foreign heads to the annual military parade, the greatest number since 2015, including the leaders of Brazil, Slovakia and Serbia. The Kremlin presented the participation rate as proof that it is not isolated, even four years in its war in Ukraine.

Other guests included leaders of autocracies colleagues and pariah regimes, such as the military junts of Myanmar and Burkina Faso.

Putin also thanked a North Korean military delegation visiting a sign of deepening of links and new geopolitical realities after recent admission on both sides that the North Korean troops fought alongside the Russian forces in Ukraine.

Chairing the parade, Putin sat next to the Chinese chief, Xi Jinping, and was seen in a frequent conversation with his most powerful ally. The two men had large talks before the parade, and their joint declaration went further than the previous declarations by directly condemning the United States.

The Brazilian president, Luiz Incio Lula Da Silva, was also in Moscow for the parade, and later Friday met Putin. He criticized Donald Trumps Prices and organized an extended partnership with Moscow. We have the chance of this historic moment to grow our commercial relationship, he said.

This year, the parade presented an extended military presence, with a fleet of tanks that roll on the Red Square alongside rocket launchers, TOS-2 Tosochka heavy flame systems and iskander ballistic missiles all weapons used in the war in Ukraine. For the first time, several types of modern Russian manufacturing drones were also exposed, stressing their role as a decisive characteristic of the conflict.

The window of weapons marked a striking contrast with the tonic parade of the 1920s, when a single reservoir of the Soviet era rolled in the red square. The change is likely to resonate in European capitals, where officials were increasingly concerned about Moscow's ability to reconstruct its military stocks and increase weapons production.

During his two and a half decades in power, the day of victory became the centerpiece of the vision of Poutines of Russian identity. But since the start of the large -scale invasion of Russia, the mass propaganda machine of Kremlins has given it new meaning, Putin using celebrations to justify the current war.

Not far from Putin, several high -level veterans of the war in Ukraine, while the Russian media reported that more than 1,500 soldiers who participated in the invasion participated in the march.

Putin armed the heritage of the Second World War to mobilize the support of his invasion, falsely depicting Zelenskyy, who is Jewish, as a leader who rejected Nazism in Ukraine.

Andrei Kolesnikov, political analyst based in Moscow, said: the victory day is by far the most important celebration for Putin, it is an ideological event designed to rally the nation that surrounds it. The central message to the public is that the current special military operation is a logical continuation of the Great Patriotic War.

In a speech a day earlier, Zelenskyy condemned what he called Russia trying to appropriate Ukraine and distort history, accusing the Kremlin to twist the inheritance of the Second World War for propaganda purposes.

Tomorrow, the organizer of Bucha tombs will talk about Nazi atrocities. The architects of the headquarters of Mariupol will invoke the headquarters of Leningrad. It will be a parade of cynicism, bile and lies, said Zelenskyy.

Despite Might's show on the Red square on Friday, there was great nervousness among the political elite of the Moscows before the celebrations.

At the end of April, Putin announced a three-day unilateral ceasefire in Ukraine, from May 8 to coincide with commemorations. Zelenskyy rejected the offer as selfish and meaningless unless it is extended to 30 days, in accordance with a proposal supported by the United States that Putin has so far rejected.

In the Victory Conference, Ukraine has considerably increased its drone attacks against Moscow and the surrounding regions, causing airport closings and logistics chaos.

Zelenskyy also warned that Ukraine would not provide any security guarantee to foreign customers attending the parade in Moscow. As many observers had predicted it, kyiv seemed to refrain from targeting Moscow on the day of the parade, probably due to the presence of high -level international dignitaries.

However, the fighting continued near the first lines, Moscow accusing the Ukrainian forces of having tried to break the border of the regions of Russia Kursk and Belgorod.

This year's parade comes to what many consider a crossroads for Moscow, while the Trump administration intensifies its efforts to persuade Putin to end the war. There seems to be growing recognition in the White House that the Kremlin is not ready to retreat from its maximalist requirements, including territorial claims in certain parts of Ukraine that it does not control.

The American vice-president, JD Vance, echoes this frustration earlier this week, saying that Russia asked too much in talks, in the last sign of impatience of the Washingons with negotiations.

Great Britain, France and a group of North-European nations gathered in Oslo to discuss a way to lasting peace in Ukraine. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stre said that during a dinner on Thursday, the leaders had telephone contact with Trump and Zelenskyy, and pushed a full cease-fire. This must be monitored and respected before being able to enter the negotiations on major questions to achieve lasting peace, he said.

Kolesnikov said Putin seemed to be undecided on the opportunity to conclude serious negotiations or to continue the war in Ukraine, where Russian forces are making slow progress and grinding at a high human cost. For the moment, he blocks time, he said.