Vladimir Putin says Russia defending ‘Motherland’

Kyiv: President Vladimir Putin defended Russia’s war in Ukraine as necessary to protect the “Motherland” as Moscow flexed its military muscle on Monday at a huge parade marking the 1945 victory over Nazi Germany.

Fierce battles raged in eastern Ukraine while Putin made his Victory Day speech against a backdrop of intercontinental ballistic missiles rumbling through Red Square. The Russian leader made no major announcements on Russia’s next steps but channelled Russian pride in its World War II triumph to mobilize support for the Ukraine invasion, now in its third month.

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In a sign of international opposition to the war, protesters splattered Russia’s ambassador to Poland with red liquid. When he tried to lay a wreath in Warsaw to mark Victory Day.

The conflict is mired in the history between ex-Soviet neighbors Ukraine and Russia. Putin saying the so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine is in part to “de-Nazify” the country.

Putin blamed the West and Ukraine for today’s conflict. Telling the parade that Russia faced an “absolutely unacceptable threat” and warning against the “horror of a global war”.

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“You are fighting for the Motherland, for its future. So that no-one forgets the lessons of the Second World War,” he said.

The celebration in Red Square also featured some 11,000 troops and more than 130 military vehicles. Although a planned military fly-past cancelled. Which Russia is seeking to secure having tried and failed to take the capital Kyiv and the north.