Monday, May 9, Russia is going to celebrate the 77th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany, and President Vladimir Putin is going to give a ‘doomsday’ warning to the West, during Moscow’s World War II victory parade.
Although fewer Russian tanks and other military hardware will rumble through Moscow’s Red Square on Monday due to Ukraine’s invasion, the patriotic fervor associated with the sacred holiday could be as strong as ever.
The Russian Defence Ministry said there will be a fly-past over St Basil’s Cathedral which will showcase the Il-80 “doomsday” command plane along with Tu-160 strategic bombers.
Russia calls World War II the Great Patriotic War in which the Soviet Union lost a staggering 27 million people.
According to Putin, “The attempt to appease the aggressor on the eve of the Great Patriotic War turned out to be a mistake that cost our people dearly.”
“We will not make such a mistake a second time, we have no right.”
The 69-year-old Kremlin leader has called Ukraine’s invasion a ”special military operation” to de-nazify and demilitarise the country, likening the challenge the Soviet Union faced when Adolf Hitler’s Nazis invaded in 1941.
However, Russia has denied altering its operation according to Victory Day with Lavrov saying, “Our military isn’t going to artificially link its action to any date, including Victory Day.”
The denazification claim has been derived by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky who is Jewish.
Putin apologised after Lavrov’s remarks suggesting Adolf Hitler had Jewish roots drew sharp criticism from Israel.
British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told LBC Radio last week, “He’s (Putin) been rolling the pitch, laying the ground for being able to say, ‘Look, this is now a war against Nazis, and what I need is more people.’”