Putin and President Xi observe Russia’s Victory Day Parade in Moscow while Ukraine expresses uncertainty about ensuring attendees’ safety – and specialists caution about the possibility of World War III within the next year.

Vladimir Putin is currently in Moscow overseeing a large military parade to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

The parade, held in Red Square, is attended by 29 world leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who is considered Putin’s key ally in Europe.

Before the parade, Putin greeted Xi Jinping with a friendly handshake and took photos together. The two leaders sat beside each other as they awaited the start of the event.

The clock in Red Square chimed ten, prompting a Russian military official to announce the parade had begun.  

Now, Putin and his guests are watching on as a horde of Russian soldiers goose-step to old marching songs, roar to their commanders and drive military hardware – including intercontinental ballistic missiles – past a mausoleum containing the body of Vladimir Lenin – the father of the Soviet Union. 

Russia’s defence minister Andrey Belousov, who arrived into Red Square atop a convertible Russian Aurus government car, is addressing and inspecting the troops – who respond with a chorus of ‘hurrah!’, before Putin takes to the stage to deliver a rousing speech. 

A flight of fighter jets will then soar overhead trailing smoke in the white, blue and red of the Russian tricolour to cap off the parade.

Putin hopes the day will be one of pomp, circumstance and patriotism. 

But his opposite number in Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, has been sowing fears in the Russian capital that Victory Day proceedings may not end well, saying he could not ‘guarantee the safety’ of any world leaders who choose to attend. 

Ukraine attacked Moscow with drones for several days this week, and Moscow and Kyiv accused each other of breaking a 72-hour ceasefire declared by Putin. 

The Kremlin says the attendance of Russian allies such as Xi, Lula da Silva and several dozen leaders from the former Soviet Union, Africa, Asia and Latin America shows Russia is not isolated even if Moscow’s former WW2 Western allies want to stay away. 

From Europe, the leaders of Serbia and Slovakia will attend.

‘The victory over fascism, achieved at the cost of enormous sacrifices, has an everlasting significance,’ Putin told Xi in the Kremlin. ‘The countless sacrifices made by both our peoples should never be forgotten.’

Previous Victory Day festivities have seen thousands of military servicemen march through Moscow’s Red Square flanked by armoured vehicles, tanks and nuclear weapons as Russia’s President and his inner circle watch on. 

This year’s procession is expected to be even grander to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of what Russians refer to as ‘Great Patriotic War’, such was the level of sacrifice required to defeat Hitler. 

The effort to defeat the Nazis – in which some 26 million Soviets perished by conservative estimates – plays a hugely important role in the Russian collective consciousness and is leveraged by Putin and the Kremlin to maximise support for today’s war in Ukraine. 

That Victory Day unfolds without a hitch is so vital for the Kremlin that the Russian President even declared a three-day ceasefire in his war on Ukraine from May 8-10 in an attempt to safeguard the celebrations.

All mobile networks and internet data transmissions have been cut off in central Moscow as an extra security measure. 

But Zelensky, whose people have been indiscriminately targeted by Russia’s missiles and killer drones for more than three years, has roundly rejected the measly armistice offer and warned that Moscow could be under threat from aerial strikes.

As if to prove his point, Ukraine earlier this week unleashed a wave of more than 100 drones over Western Russia, forcing closures or flight cancellations at all four Moscow airports even as Russian servicemen and women conducted rehearsal drills ahead of the big day. 

‘Our position is very simple for all countries travelling to Russia on May 9: We cannot be held responsible for what happens on the territory of the Russian Federation,’ he said, adding Putin was ‘playing games to create a pleasant atmosphere’ for the parade. 

As Russia today prepares to showcase the best of its military technology, one of Europe’s leading intelligence officials warned that Moscow is preparing to fight a major war.

Dutch military intelligence chief [MIVD] Vice-Admiral Peter Reesink warned starkly: ‘Russia is producing much more artillery, also with help from other countries, than they need for the war with Ukraine.’

Putin is not only replenishing depleted stockpiles but moving new artillery units toward NATO borders, including the Baltic countries and Finland, he told Politico.

‘That’s an indication for us that they are building up capability’. 

As Russia geared up to host today’s parades, EU foreign ministers gathered in Ukraine to agree to a special war crimes tribunal intended to snare Putin and almost two dozen other Russian leaders.

‘There will be no impunity. There will be accountability for the crimes committed,’ said Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat.

Criticising leaders on the podium with Putin in Moscow, she said: ‘I want to stress that all those who truly support peace cannot stand side-by-side with Putin, who has started this full-scale war of aggression in Ukraine…

‘Those who truly support peace should be in Ukraine rather than in Moscow,’ she declared as the EU announced a major new aid package for Ukraine.

‘Despite the hostile attitude towards Russia from a number of Western countries, we are very successfully holding a very large-scale event,’ said Yuri Ushakov, the Kremlin’s top foreign policy adviser. 

Victory Day processions are being held across the nation, with street parties and processions seen as far east as Vladivostok almost 4,000 miles away from Moscow. 

Even though few veterans of the ‘Great Patriotic War’ are still alive 80 years after Berlin fell to the Red Army, the victory over Nazi Germany remains the most important and widely revered symbol of Soviet and Russian military prowess.

Nazi troops overran much of the western Soviet Union when they invaded in June 1941, before being driven back all the way to Berlin, where the USSR’s hammer and sickle flag was raised above the ruined capital.

The US, UK, France and other allies mark the end of the war in Europe on May 8.

In 2024, thousands of Russian servicemen paraded through Red Square to salute their leader followed by a fearsome Yars nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launcher in a classic display of nuclear prowess.

But more than two years into the war in Ukraine, last year’s procession was notably lacking in military hardware.

One solitary World War II-era tank trundled through the centre of Moscow, accompanied by little more than a few mobile rocket launchers. 

This year, Putin is committed to show Russia’s military strength has not been diminished, with production levels of artillery and other ammunition showing Russia is ensuring it can wage war indefinitely. 

Some Russian experts fear Putin now depends on a war economy and cannot halt his military dependency.

Eighty years on from the end of World War II, the sacrifice made by millions upon millions of Soviet citizens remains part of Russia’s collective consciousness. 

The immense suffering in cities like Stalingrad, Kursk and Putin’s native Leningrad – now St. Petersburg – still serve as a powerful symbol of the country’s ability to prevail against seemingly overwhelming challenges.

Since coming to power on the last day of 1999, Putin has made May 9 an important part of his political agenda, featuring displays of military might.

Columns of tanks and missiles roll across Red Square and squadrons of fighter jets roar overhead as medal-bedecked veterans join him to review the parade. 

Many wear the black-and-orange St. George’s ribbon that is traditionally associated with Victory Day.

Putin often talks about his family history, sharing memories of his father, who fought on the front during the Nazi siege of the city and was badly wounded.

As Putin tells it, his father, also named Vladimir, came home from a military hospital during the war to see workers trying to take away his wife, Maria, who had been declared dead of starvation.

But the elder Putin did not believe she had died – saying she had only lost consciousness, weak with hunger.

Their first child, Viktor, died during the siege when he was 3, one of more than 1 million Leningrad residents who died in the 872-day blockade, most of them from starvation.

For several years, Putin carried a photo of his father in Victory Day marches – as did others honouring relatives who were war veterans – in what was called the ‘Immortal Regiment.’

Those demonstrations were suspended during the coronavirus pandemic and then again amid security concerns after the start of the fighting in Ukraine.