Russia’s Victory Day celebration was cut nearly in half
compared with the 2025 anniversary parade, which lasted 1.5 hours.
The previous short marks came in 2024, when the procession
lasted just over 50 minutes, and in 2023, when it lasted about 47 minutes.
From 2010 to 2022, Moscow’s parades lasted at least an hour.
The exception was the 2017 parade, which was cut to 50 minutes because bad
weather prevented the aviation display, The Moscow Times reported.
For the first time in 19 years, Moscow’s parade was held
without military hardware. Instead of missile launchers and tanks, only columns
of soldiers marched across Red Square. Organizers replaced the weapons display
with video footage showing drones and nuclear weapons. The videos also showed
“samples of the latest Russian equipment,” as well as the nuclear submarines
Arkhangelsk and Knyaz Vladimir.
Earlier reports said the May 9 parade was accompanied by
broad internet shutdowns in central Moscow. It was held with a limited number
of foreign guests.
Dictator Vladimir Putin, speaking on Red Square, claimed
“victories” in the war in Ukraine despite successful Ukrainian attacks on
targets deep inside Russia and Russia’s slowing advance along the front line.