As many as 354,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or injured in the Ukraine war, which is now in its 15th month and could well grind on well beyond 2023, according to a trove of purported US intelligence documents posted online.
VICTORY DAY
No Western leaders attended Tuesday’s parade, which was much reduced in scale and came less than a week after Russia said Ukraine had attacked the Kremlin with two drones in an attempt to kill Putin. Kyiv denied any involvement.
Putin said “Western globalist elites” were sowing Russophobia and aggressive nationalism, while the Ukrainian people had become “hostages to a state coup” and to the ambitions of the West.
Putin said the memory of World War II was sacred and paid tribute to those who fought against Nazis, including the armies of the US and Britain, and also to China’s fight against the Japanese.
Along with the 1812 defeat of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, the crushing of Nazi Germany is Russia’s most revered military triumph, though both catastrophic invasions from the West left Russia deeply sensitive about its Western borders.
“We want to see a peaceful, free and stable future,” Putin said, adding that memorials to Soviet soldiers were being destroyed in a number of countries.
“We have repulsed international terrorism, we will protect the inhabitants of Donbas (in eastern Ukraine), we will ensure our security,” said Putin, who was joined in Red Square by leaders of several ex-Soviet republics.
He did not address the challenges facing Russia as its forces prepare for an expected major counter-offensive by Ukraine, or outline any path to victory.
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