MOSCOW, May 9 (Reuters) – Vladimir Putin said Russia would do everything to avoid global conflict but would not allow anyone to threaten it, in a speech to mark the anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
During this short speech delivered on Red Square before a “Victory Parade” reduced again this year to its simplest expression by the mobilization of the Russian army in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin repeated that the Russian nuclear forces were still in order of battle.
“Russia is going through a difficult period,” said the master of the Kremlin, affirming that “the future of the homeland” is in the hands of its soldiers.
Russia traditionally celebrates the end of the Second World War on May 9, the capitulation of Nazi Germany having occurred at 11:01 p.m. in Berlin on May 8, 1945, already the following day in Moscow.
When he was sworn in for a new term on Tuesday, Vladimir Putin had already paid tribute to the soldiers of the “special military operation” in Ukraine who are fighting for the “motherland”.
For the 71-year-old leader, the war in Ukraine is part of a “holy war” against an “arrogant” West, which according to him ignores the role played by the Soviet Union during the Second World War and which has forgotten the lessons of the failed invasions of Napoleon and Adolf Hitler, proof according to him that Russia cannot be defeated on the battlefield.
Tensions with Western countries have escalated in recent weeks as the Russian army has resumed a slow and costly advance in eastern Ukraine, where the United States has agreed to supply Kyiv with missiles. at longer range, that the United Kingdom has validated the principle of strikes on Russian territory and that President Emmanuel Macron has not ruled out sending French soldiers to Ukraine.
No Western leader is attending this year’s “Victory Parade”, to which the ambassadors of “hostile countries” – those who support Ukraine – have not been invited either.
Only the leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Cuba, Laos and Guinea-Bissau made the trip to Moscow. (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, written by Mark Trevelyan, French version Tangi Salaün)
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