On Victory Day, Putin Defends War On Ukraine As Fight Against ‘Nazis’

President Vladimir Putin sought to justify his contentious war against Ukraine during a huge Victory Day parade on Monday, once again falsely calling Ukrainians “Nazis” and insisting without evidence that Kyiv was planning to build nuclear weapons.

As Russia celebrated its most emotional holiday commemorating the Nazi defeat in World War II, Putin appeared in Moscow’s Red Square to invoke pride over the Soviet role in that cause. He cast Russia’s battles in Ukraine now as a comparable effort. “There is no place in the world for executioners, punishers and Nazis,” he said. A day earlier, he had described Ukrainians as “Nazi filth.”

But Putin’s speech was brief and made no mention of Russian troops’ poor performance and miscalculations. And he did not declare the “special military operation” to be a “war” or announce a general or partial mobilization to rebuild depleted Russian forces, as some had feared.

Putin arrived at Red Square shortly before 10 a.m. wearing on his black coat a St. George’s ribbon of black and orange – denoting victory over fascism. His silhouette was notably bulked out, raising speculation that he was wearing a flak jacket, and he shook hands with some of the hundreds of elderly World War II veterans who were in the square.

In a 10-minute speech, Putin encouraged the 11,000 service personnel in attendance and described Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a “preemptive response” to NATO actions, which he described as aggression and fueling false histories of prior wars. He offered no details on any of his claims but railed at the United States and European countries for their roles before and during the war with Ukraine.

Putin said Russia tried to have an honest dialogue on European security, but “the NATO countries did not want to hear us, which means that, in fact, they had completely different plans. And we saw it.” He accused the NATO alliance of preparing a “punitive operation” to invade Russia’s “historical lands,” including Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.

“In this way, an absolutely unacceptable threat was systematically created for us, and right next to our borders. Everything said that a clash with the neo-Nazis” supported by the U.S. and its junior companions “would be inevitable,” Putin said, adding that NATO was sending weapons and military advisers to Ukraine.

Putin added that NATO has been part of a Western effort to undermine faith, traditional values and respect for all people and cultures.

“Such moral degradation became the basis for cynical falsifications of the history of World War II, stirring up Russophobia, praising traitors, mocking the memory of their victims, erasing the courage of those who gained and suffered the victory,” he said.

The parade began with eight goose-stepping soldiers in dress uniform bearing the Russian flag and red Soviet-era victory banner.

As triumphal military music rose, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu stood in an open-topped convertible and saluted and congratulated military formations, filled with dozens of smiling personnel.

In what appeared to be a sign of Russian security concerns after several Ukrainian attacks on its territory, a traditional aerial flyover was canceled. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov blamed bad weather, although the weather, while partly cloudy, was not rough by Russian standards.

Aerial displays in the cities of St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Kaliningrad, Murmansk, Samara and Novosibirsk were also canceled.

In the ravaged Ukrainian city of Mariupol, separatist leaders, including militant Denis Pushilin, head of the Donetsk People’s Republic, unfurled a 984-foot banner of the St. George’s ribbon. The once-thriving city has been nearly razed during weeks of Russian bomb and artillery attacks. Pro-Russian figures carried the banner amid its ruins.

In Warsaw, Russian ambassador to Poland Sergey Andreyev was splashed with a red liquid resembling paint and prevented from laying a wreath. He was jostled by a crowd chanting “Fascists!,” according to video posted on several Telegram channels, including Russian state-owned RIA Novosti.

Unknown attackers briefly hacked into state television on Russian smart TVs, according to users, replacing program headlines with the message, “The blood of thousands of Ukrainians and hundreds of murdered children is on your hands. TV and the authorities are lying. No to war.”

The same line appeared on Yandex, a Russian search engine and portal, which also runs television program schedules. Its daily programs for state-run Channel One and Russia 1 were defaced early Monday.

Russia’s version of YouTube, called RuTube, was also hacked and inaccessible, according a statement by the company.

Dozens of parades and other events were held across Russia Sunday and Monday, all decked out with the letter Z, which has become a symbol of the invasion, emblazoned on Russian armored vehicles as they have rumbled across Ukraine. On Monday, Russian children turned out for parades, riding model tanks and airplanes marked with Z. People posed in Z formations for videos and photos.

Posters celebrating Russia’s World War II victory decorated the streets of Moscow on Monday. Russian tanks, missiles and armored vehicles on parade were painted with an orange and black stripe to connote the St. George’s ribbon. Russian television aired footage of military parades across the country, zooming in on children in the audience wearing military uniforms.

The propaganda even filtered into space. Russian cosmonauts at the International Space Station displayed the red Soviet-era victory flag, declaring “To our Victory! Glory to Russia!”

In Russian-controlled eastern Ukraine, authorities in Donetsk and Luhansk staged ceremonies lighting eternal flames in honor of World War II’s dead and those killed in the current war, but ruled out parades of their own. State television broadcast footage of Russian soldiers handing out Soviet flags with the St. George’s ribbon in villages near Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine had banned the ribbon in 2017 as an emblem of Russia’s occupation.

Putin has built his regime’s ideology on the idea of Russia as a righteous, orthodox state, besieged by a hostile and decadent West, fostering a sense of resentful victimhood. He has crushed dissent, jailed critics, shut down independent media and activists and stifled democratic elections.

But his militaristic nationalism has stumbled as Russia failed to seize a swift victory. After 75 days, Russia has won control of much of Ukraine’s southern coast, including the strategically important Mariupol, despite a continued battle there for the Azovstal steel plant. It has created a land bridge from Crimea, as well taken the cities of Kherson, Melitopol and Izyum.

To many Russians, not all of whom support his invasion, Victory Day is mainly about memories of a glorious past.

Alexei, 58, a Moscow architect who declined to give his surname, said his grandfather, who was twice wounded in the war and lost one of his brothers, would have been upset by the invasion of Ukraine.

“This day has nothing to do with what is happening in Ukraine right now. I just think it would have been a tragedy for my grandfather if he had been alive. He had many acquaintances in Ukraine. I’m even glad he doesn’t see any of this. I think there’s no excuse for war.”

Lubov, who attended the parade with her husband, Sergei, and 8-year-old daughter, Daria, said nearly every Russian family had someone who was killed or wounded in World War II.

“This is a holy holiday for us. My great-grandfather was wounded in the war and went all the way to Berlin. I consider him a hero, so we in the family always celebrate Victory Day,” she said, also declining to give her surname.

“We wear these ribbons in memory of our great-grandfather and everyone who died in the war,” she said, referring to the St. George’s ribbons she and her husband wore. “We are against any war.”

The Kremlin insists the war is going according to plan and on time, but the conflict has exposed incompetence as well as episodes of brutality by Russia’s armed forces, amid mounting evidence of its war crimes. Russia has not disclosed the extent of its military casualties, with the last issued figure of 1,351 military service deaths dating back to March.

Russia has shown little evidence of backing down, and state media continues to churn up support for the war. Russian space agency chief Dmitry Rogozin warned Sunday that Russia would wipe out NATO in half an hour if there was a nuclear war.

State media anchor Dmitry Kiselyov last week claimed that one nuclear-armed super-heavy Sarmat missile, a weapon that last month had its first full flight test, would sink Britain and Ireland. Margarita Simonyan, editor in chief of state-owned RT television, said last month on state television that the war would likely end in a nuclear apocalypse. State anchor Vladimir Solovyov responded: “We’ll go to heaven and they’ll simply croak.”

When he launched the war, Putin said Russia’s objective was to “demilitarize and denazify” Ukraine, urging Ukrainians to cooperate, and he promised not to occupy the country. The Kremlin’s aims appear to have shifted, with Russian politicians and personalities on state television now vowing that Russia will never leave conquered areas.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has demanded that Russia withdraw to its positions from before the Feb. 24 invasion.

Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky said Monday talks between Russia and Ukraine were continuing via video but said there was not enough progress between the sides.

(c) 2022, The Washington Post · Robyn Dixon, Mary Ilyushina