Putting a rest to the widespread speculations, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday concluded his ‘Victory Day’ address without mentioning any declaration of war in Ukraine or general mobilisation of its forces.
Promoting Russia as a multi-ethnic nation, Vladimir Putin also said on Monday, “Shoulder to shoulder, soldiers and officers are standing here from many regions of our huge motherland, including those who arrived here straight from Donbas directly from the war zone.
“We remember how Russia’s enemy tried to use against us the gangs of international terrorism. They tried to sow international and religious enmity to break us, to weaken us from inside, but they failed,” he said.
“Today our warriors of different ethnicities are fighting together in the battle. They shield each other from bullets and fragments and shrapnel, really as brothers, and this is the strength of Russia. The unbeatable strength of our multi-ethnic nation,” he added.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told state-run news agency RIA Novosti that the air portion of the Victory Day parade in Moscow was cancelled because of the weather.
According to CNN, the parade was expected to show 77 aircraft flying over Moscow’s Red Square, commemorating the 77th anniversary of the Soviet Union defeating Nazi Germany in World War II.
Putin claimed that his country is fighting ‘in its own soil’. He also informed that American veterans were not allowed to attend the Victory Parade in Moscow.
In other remarks during the ‘Victory Day’ speech, Putin said “our duty is to do everything so that the horror of a global war does not happen again.” He also alluded to the conflict in Ukraine and said “Russia gave a preemptive rebuff to aggression — it was a forced and sovereign decision.
The military parade started in Russia on Victory Day on Monday to mark the 77th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War, state reports.
