This is the deadline for Vladimir Putin and for the despicable war he is waging in Ukraine. Indeed, May 9 in Russia is a moment of patriotic communion dedicated to the some 20 million Soviets killed during the Second World War. Every May 9 since the collapse of the USSR, a grand military parade in Red Square celebrates the anniversary of the Soviet victory over the Nazis.
In 2021, in Moscow, in front of a compact crowd and hundreds of senior officers in ceremonial uniforms and at attention, this traditional parade brought together more than 12,000 men as well as 190 vehicles and weapon systems. Vladimir Putin has placed May 9, in more than twenty years in power, at the heart of his power policy.
However, who will parade in the capital on May 9 if the bulk of the Russian army is still immobilized in Ukraine? A cheap parade would be the admission that the “special operation” of propaganda has turned into a war and that, despite its enormous superiority in numbers and in armament, Russia has not won it. Putin is certainly not ready to admit the equivalent of a defeat, and rest assured that he will do the impossible – any more Bouchas? — to force Volodymyr Zelensky to capitulate before May 9.
So the time has come for the West to stop playing with words, stick to defensive rather than offensive weapons, and finally equip the brave Ukrainians to hold out until the 9 May and even beyond.
I look forward to May 9, to see if the main holiday of the year for the ruthless Putin will be ruined, to judge if he will shake the unchanging enslavement of the Russian people.
I can’t wait for May 9, when, on both sides of the Russian-Ukrainian border, we can sing in unison that he has returned, the time of the lily of the valley.