Russia | One last rehearsal before the May 9 parade

(Moscow) Russia performs final rehearsals on Saturday before the traditional May 9 military parade in Moscow celebrating the victory over Nazi Germany in 1945, which will be the occasion for a show of force in the middle of the Ukrainian campaign struggle.

In recent years, President Vladimir Putin has used this parade to show off the might of his army, sometimes unveiling new state-of-the-art weapons. And this edition should be no exception to the rule.

At the rehearsal, paratroopers who participated in the offensive in Ukraine marched on armored vehicles, and should therefore be present during the parade on Monday, noted the state agency TASS.

This year, if Russian tanks and soldiers will parade as usual on the emblematic Red Square, the spirits will be in Ukraine, where Moscow has been leading an offensive since the end of February which has called into question the image of its army.

Indeed, the military intervention, which many experts predicted as dazzling, is in its third month and has been marked by disappointments, particularly logistical.

After having failed at the gates of Kyiv in the face of Ukrainian forces more motivated than expected and armed by the West, the Russian general staff had to revise its objectives downwards by tightening the offensive on the east and south of the country. .

There is no doubt that Mr. Putin, who is to deliver a highly anticipated speech, will also want to make people forget the loss of the cruiser Moskva, its flagship in the Black Sea, which sank last month. Moscow says it sank after an accidental fire, but Kyiv says its coastal defense sent it to the bottom.

While this parade is generally followed closely by Western capitals, Mr. Putin will have a new opportunity to send warnings, while Moscow has repeatedly brandished the nuclear threat.

According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the “plane of the Apocalypse”, an Ilyushin Il-80 specially designed to allow the Russian president to continue to pilot the country from the air in the event of nuclear war, will fly over Red Square.

Several weapons that can fire nuclear missiles, such as the Iars RS-24 intercontinental ballistic system and the shorter-range Iskander system, will also be paraded.

This year, the military parade will also be held in a context where many Russians fear a general mobilization in connection with Ukraine, even if the Kremlin has denied that such a measure was planned.

The May 9 parade only became an annual tradition after the fall of the USSR in 1991.

Mr. Putin made it a spectacular event, with polished television production, aimed both at intimidating Moscow’s adversaries and at maintaining the patriotic fiber of the Russians.

The main celebration takes place in Red Square, but commemorations will also take place in dozens of cities across Russia.