Putin’s plane flies over Moscow
The Kremlin has said that Russia has no plans to hold celebrations in Mariupol, Ukraine, on May 9 to mark the victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.
On Wednesday, Ukrainian intelligence accused Moscow of preparing to hold a military parade in the besieged port city of Mariupol, which was almost completely taken over by Russian forces, while the last Ukrainian fighters are still holed up in the Azovstal factory in which it is located.
“This year, of course, celebrations are impossible for obvious reasons, but the time will come when a big celebration will be held there,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“There will be Russians, of course, a large number of Russians on May 9 in Mariupol, but as for an official delegation going to this city, I’m not aware of that,” he added.
After weeks of siege, much of the strategic city is in ruins.
On Saturday, Russian forces conducted final exercises before the military parade to be held next Monday on the occasion of Victory Day over Nazi Germany.
According to the American “Associated Press” agency, this year’s celebration will not be just a celebration of the victory in the conflict that ended 77 years ago, but an occasion for Russia to display its military might in the midst of its invasion of Ukraine, and to remind the thousands of soldiers who are fighting in Ukraine.
The date of the ninth of May is very important in Russia, which holds military parades, one of them on Red Square in Moscow, to commemorate what it considers a victory in the “Great Patriotic War” once morest Nazi Germany.
The Kremlin has repeatedly stressed that Russian forces are fighting “neo-Nazis” in Ukraine, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, repeating historical analogies between this military intervention and World War II.
