Posted on 05/09/2026 5:17:00 AM PDT by Cronos
There were no neat rows of tanks or ballistic missile carriers rolling down the smooth cobbles of Moscow’s Red Square on Saturday, as Russia scaled back what is usually a grand militaristic Victory Day parade celebrating the Soviet Union’s role in defeating Nazi Germany.
'Victory has always been and will be ours,” Putin said, addressing columns of troops. He vowed to fight on in Ukraine
North Korean troops marched in the parade for the first time, a visible sign of Moscow’s deepening partnership with Pyongyang that has resulted in the deployment of over 10,000 troops to fight the war in Ukraine, according to Kyiv and Seoul estimates.
Military officers of the newly established Russian military drone forces were also present.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
Military Summary Channel-Facts on the Ground.
RU v Uk
Morning Ukie Bots😄
The Norks attended after hearing there would be food there.
CC
It’s amazing that he has not yet Sun Tzu - a long ear destroys both the attacked and the attacker
The decree caused much hilarity in Kyiv, with posts on social media pointing out that the only totally safe place in Russia on May 9 would be Red Square
Chuckle. Good one. 👍
I say it would have been funny if a Ukrainian drone buzzed the parade with a Ukrainian flag attached to it.
Yeah right.Vlad is on record stating if they attack their Victory Day celebration in Moscow, Vlad will level Kiev with his Oreshnik missiles….and that is “ the rest of the story”.
LOL, another Russian "unstoppable supper weapon". Funny how some regimes at their end start touting "wunderwaffe".
Some are saying this is epic trolling, but actually it’s a fair bit smarter.
Scuttlebutt on this side of the Atlantic is, Putin kept threatening Ukraine with Oreshniks while demanding a ceasefire, while Ukraine simply pointed out
(1) Since Russia has so much orm for launching sneak attacks during ceasefires (even when they called for the ceasefire and the other side has agreed to it), there’s no benefit to Ukraine.
(2) A military parade is a legit target in wartime - Russia itself has exploited that many times.
(3) They get these threats all the time from the Vatniks so why would this be any different.
Apparently, Moscow called Washington on the off chance President Trump could intervene on their behalf to rein Zelensky in. Which was strange considering that Washington has been rather insistent recently that it no longer wants to be involved at all.
Perhaps with one eye on the rather appalling optics that an egregiously pro-Moscow intervention would have sent (especially given that Putin’s already gotten sanctions relief from the USA while clobbering European partners with tariffs AND insulting them constantly), the Administration appeared to suggest some kind of compromise where they’d ask Zelensky to refrain from attacking the parade in Moscow provided Ukraine got a measurable quid-pro-quo from Moscow.
Result: Ukraine got 1000 prisoners returned, and all they had to do in return was agree not to launch an attack against the Red Square and immediate area for a very short period of time.
Releasing a letter effectively saying that Zelensky was granting Putin permission to hold a parade without it being shot at, makes it look as if Putin had been begging for it and Zelensky rather than Putin is the one calling the shots. But weirdly, that isn’t far from the truth.
I bet Putin hadn’t expected it to look quite so embarrassing if committed to paper though!
But anyway - it appears Russia violated their own definition of their own ceasefire by launching an attack on a government building in Kyiv (as pretty much anybody could’ve predicted) while Ukraine literally could’ve bombed anything more than 2 miles away from Red Square without breaking THEIR terms of the ceasefire.
Question is, what did Ukraine hit, given that Putin had pretty much bussed all of the Moscow region’s air defences into the city center to protect a military parade that was so completely watered-down that a boy scout jamboree would’ve been more impressive and had more armaments on display?
And a reminder that a lot of Ukrainians fought and died to get that victory.
“their Victory Day celebration in Moscow”
Ukraine has no reason to attack.
Russia holding a victory parade while being bogged down in a disaster is a big embarrassment in itself.
Estimates of Ukrainian Red Army soldiers killed during WWII vary, with researchers citing between 1.37 million and 3.5 million military deaths, out of approximately 7 million Ukrainians who fought in the Red Army. Total demographic losses (including civilians) for Ukraine are at least 8 to 10 million, with 3.3 million military personnel killed including regular soldiers, partisans, and militia.
“Vlad will level Kiev with his Oreshnik missiles…”
Today, as I hear daily the unbounded delight of Russian politicians, public figures, and parliament members about the unique “Oreshnik” missile, I find myself perplexed. The excitement is palpable, broadcast from leading TV channels and even voiced by the President of Russia. We are told that Oreshnik is the newest, most unique missile. That it is hypersonic. That its accuracy, combined with its payload capacity even in conventional equipment, is comparable to a tactical nuclear warhead. And, above all, that it cannot be intercepted.
As someone with some knowledge of missiles, ballistics, missile warheads, flight trajectories, and the space-time structure of missile strikes, I find myself confused. Here’s why.
https://news.az/news/-the-reality-behind-russia-s-oreshnik-missile-claims
Russia stalled outside kostyantynivka.
Current Russian doctrine of sending mass numbers of ill trained/equipped soldiers to the front in Ukraine mirrors some of the extreme brutality of Soviet actions in WW2.
During World War II, Soviet forces (Red Army) frequently conducted mass mobilizations of men in retaken Ukrainian villages, often drafting all available males, aged 16 to 60 to fight, sometimes with minimal training, as they advanced against German forces. This was part of a larger, brutal effort to rebuild military strength, which led to immense casualties among Ukrainian recruits.
Ukraine hailed the Russians as liberators until they realized the Russians were just as bad as the Germans.
It’s amazing to think that to just take Berlin, when the Nazi Army was virtually almost down to nothing, the Red Army still lost 100,000 men.
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