The Russian president took advantage of the traditional May 9 parade to reaffirm his country’s position, which attacked Ukraine on February 24.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin proclaimed on Monday May 9 that his army was fighting in Ukraine to defend “the homeland”in front of the “unacceptable threat” represented by its Western-backed neighbour. He then stressed that everything had to be done to prevent “the horror of a new global war is not repeated”in a brief speech followed by the traditional May 9 military parade in Red Square that marks the Soviet victory over the Nazis in 1945.
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Returning to his decision to launch his forces in Ukraine on February 24, he repeated that the Ukrainian authorities were preparing an attack against pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country, wanted to acquire the atomic bomb and were supported by NATO, existential threat to Russia. “An absolutely unacceptable threat was forming, directly at our borders”he claimed, once again accusing his neighbor of neo-Nazism and calling his offensive a “preventive response” and of “only right decision”.
Two and a half months after launching its forces against its neighbor, the fighting is concentrated in the east, as Russia has had to scale back its ambition to take the country and kyiv, its capital, in the face of fierce Ukrainian resistance. armed by the West. Since Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, the traditional May 9 parade has celebrated both the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany and the rediscovered Russian power after the humiliation of the fall of the USSR.