China’s Xi stands beside Putin at Russia’s Victory Day parade

Vladimir Putin has led Russia’s Victory Day commemorations with a parade in Red Square and heightened security after days of Ukrainian strikes targeting the capital.

China’s Xi Jinping joined Putin as he told thousands of soldiers and more than 20 international leaders that Russia remembered the lessons of World War Two.

Putin used his speech to tie the war to today’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and said all of Russia was behind what he called the “special military operation” – now well into its fourth year.

A unilateral, three-day ceasefire was announced by Russia to coincide with the lavish 80th anniversary event, which Ukraine has rejected as a “theatrical show”.

Ukraine’s military said it had come under thousands of attacks since the ceasefire came into force on 8 May. Russia has insisted the ceasefire is being observed and accused Ukraine of hundreds of violations.

In the days ahead of the proposed truce, Moscow and Kyiv exchanged a barrage of strikes.

Flights at airports across Russia were cancelled and some 60,000 passengers left stranded in the wake of Ukrainian drone attacks.

Heavy restrictions were in place in the centre of Moscow as Russia marked the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany.

Before Putin’s address and a one-minute silence, the commander of ground troops, Oleg Salyukov, led 11,000 troops into Red Square, including some 1,500 who had fought in Ukraine. They were then inspected by Defence Minister Andrei Belousov.

Putin insisted that Russia “was and will be an indestructible barrier against Nazism, Russophobia, antisemitism”. The Russian leader has repeatedly and falsely referred to Ukraine’s leadership as Nazis.

“Truth and justice are on our side,” he said, insisting that “the “entire country, society and people support the participants” of the Ukraine war.

READ: Why did Putin’s Russia invade Ukraine?

Russia said 27 world leaders were attending the event.

China’s Xi Jinping had pride of place, sitting alongside Vladimir Putin on the platform in Red Square, and sporting an orange and black St George ribbon, which Russia sees as a symbol of military glory but which has been banned by several neighbouring countries.

Among the soldiers joining the parade were 102 Chinese troops as well as contingents from North Korea, Vietnam and Mongolia. Thousands of North Koreans have fought in Ukraine and Putin later made a point of personally greeting some of the soldiers on Red Square.

Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro were among the assembled guests, along with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Robert Fico, Slovakia’s prime minister who is the only European Union leader to travel to Moscow.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas had earlier made clear that leaders of EU member states and countries aspiring to join the union should not take part in the event because of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Serbia is an EU candidate country and Vucic said he expected he would face consequences because of his decision to go.

For Putin, the attendance of China’s Xi on Victory Day is seen as a significant achievement, and he praised the “courageous people of China” as he paid tribute to Russia’s allies in World War Two.

Putin and Xi held two rounds of talks before the parade as well as an informal chat on the war in Ukraine, Chinese reports said.

Joining the parade was a wide variety of Russian military hardware, inlcuding Yars missile systems, tanks and armoured personnel carriers. Six Su-25 military jets then flew over Red Square to complete the parade.

Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky had earlier warned that he could not guarantee the safety of anyone attending the event and has urged heads of state not to travel to Moscow.

Mykhailo Samus, a Ukrainian military analyst and director of the New Geopolitics Research Network, told the BBC he believed that Ukraine would forego attacking the parade, largely because of the presence of foreign leaders.

But should Ukraine choose to do so, it would constitute a legitimate military target, Samus said.

During his evening address on Thursday, Zelensky said that Ukraine was “ready for a full ceasefire starting right now”.

“But it must be real,” he said in a video on X. “No missile or drone strikes, no hundreds of assaults on the front.”

He called on Russia to support the ceasefire and “prove their willingness to end the war”.

Ukraine has accused Russia of violating its own truce thousands of times since it was supposed to come into effect on Wednesday night.

On the second day of the truce, Ukraine said there had been nearly 200 clashes along the front line, eighteen Russian air strikes and almost four thousand instances of shelling by Russian troops.

In Prymorske, a village in the Zaporizhzhia region, a woman was reportedly killed after a Russian drone struck her car.

Russia’s defence ministry has said that all groups of Russian forces in Ukraine “completely ceased combat operations and remained on the previously occupied lines and positions”. However, they were reacting in a “mirror-like manner” to violations by Ukrainian forces.

Zelensky has repeatedly dismissed Putin’s proposal as a “game” and called for a longer truce of at least 30 days, something that is supported by Ukraine’s allies in Europe and the US.

He said he had spoken with US President Donald Trump to reiterate his readiness for a “long and lasting peace” and talks “in any format”. He said he had told Trump that a 30-day ceasefire was a “real indicator” of moving towards peace.

Writing on Truth Social on Thursday, the US president reiterated the call for an unconditional ceasefire and warned of further sanctions for any party failing to sign up to it.