Russians are united in a “sacred” fight against the West, President Vladimir Putin declared during the annual May 9 Victory Parade in Moscow.
The battle for the fate of the Russian “Motherland” has become “patriotic” and “sacred,” Putin told those assembled for the Red Square parade.
Putin repeatedly drew parallels between the Ukraine war and the challenge faced by Russia when Adolf Hitler’s forces invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in World War II—more than any other country.
He hailed Russian forces in Ukraine as “heroes” fighting a West which, he said, had forgotten the decisive role played by the Soviet Union in defeating Nazi Germany, Reuters reported.
The parade occurred as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited Kyiv to mark Europe Day, a celebration of the bloc’s founding.
At the European Parliament in Strasbourg, meanwhile, Germany Chancellor Olaf Scholz told lawmakers that the EU must not be intimidated by Russia’s display of military power. The bloc must continue to support Ukraine for as long as it takes, he said.
In Brussels, lawmakers are pushing through legislation to finance and send a million armament rounds to Ukraine within the next 12 months.
On May 5, Manfred Weber, the chief of the European People’s Party—the largest political party in the European Parliament—requested “an urgent procedure” to fast track voting in the European Parliament in order to get ammunition to Ukraine “as soon as possible.”
