Putin Says Ukraine Conflict Nearing End After Red Square Victory Day Parade

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that he believes the Ukrainian conflict is nearing its end after he oversaw a military parade on Red Square commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, with the show not including heavy weapons for the first time in nearly two decades.

“Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday said he believes the Ukrainian conflict is nearing its end after he oversaw a military parade on Red Square commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II — a show that didn't include heavy weapons for the first time in nearly two decades”

CBS News

Putin told reporters, "I think it (the conflict) is heading to an end but it's still a serious matter," and AFP reported he added he was ready to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a third country only once all conditions for a potential peace agreement were settled.

CBS News

At the parade, Putin hailed Russian troops fighting in Ukraine, declaring that they "face an aggressive force that is armed and supported by the entire bloc of NATO," and are fighting for a "just cause."

El País reported that Putin justified the absence of vehicles in the parade by arguing that his forces "must concentrate on the military operation," while also urging his people to make more sacrifices to win the war.

El País also said the Great Patriotic War lasted 1,418 days compared with the 1,535 days that Putin's "special military operation" reaches this Saturday.

In the lead-up to Victory Day, security was tight in Moscow as Putin and several foreign leaders attended the parade, which was scaled down even as a U.S.-brokered eased concerns about possible Ukrainian attempts to disrupt the festivities.

CBS News reported that Russia declared a unilateral ceasefire for Friday and Saturday, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that was supposed to begin on May 6, but neither of them held as the parties traded blame for continuing attacks.

El Confidencial

El País said Ukraine heeded a temporary truce issued by U.S. President Donald Trump, and that Putin later argued Ukraine did not attack because Moscow had threatened with a "mirror response against the decision-making centers in Kiev."

El País reported that Putin appeared confident at his late-night press conference in achieving his objectives soon, stating, "The confrontation [between Ukraine, with Western backing, and Russia, which continues to this day] I believe is coming to an end, but it remains a serious matter,".

El País further described how Trump convinced Kiev to observe a three-day ceasefire on May 9, 10 and 11, and said the Kremlin said it was Washington's decision while Zelenski published a decree authorizing a parade in Moscow on May 9 with Red Square coordinates as a safe zone "from the use of Ukrainian weapons."

Beyond the parade messaging, the sources describe a broader Russian political environment in which dissent is punished and war deaths are normalized through official ideology.

“The Russian leader claims he is fighting against a country 'supported by the entire NATO bloc' at the parade in Red Square for Victory Day”

El País

The Conversation reported that only in the period 2018-2023, about 110,000 people were prosecuted in Russia under administrative-code political articles and 5,613 under criminal-code political articles, and it said that since February 2022, between 600,000 and 1 million Russians have left the country.

The Conversation also said that among those who stayed and went to fight in Ukraine, between 47,000 (minimum estimate) and 360,000 (figures advanced by the Ukrainian armed forces) have died there, and it added that the UK Ministry of Defence calculated the Russian army suffered an average of 983 soldiers killed or wounded per day in February 2024.

Philosophie Magazine framed the war’s impact on children by describing a case in Sloviansk where a two-year-old boy died after his building was hit by a missile, and it quoted the claim that in the aggressor country "les enfants ne sont pas tués. Ils sont zombifiés."

Philosophie Magazine argued that the International Criminal Court indictment of Vladimir Poutine is tied to the "déportation illégale" of Ukrainian children to Russia, and it concluded that this "atteinte à l’innocence, à l’avenir, à la liberté" is presented as his "crime le plus grave."