Sawt Falasteen - Putin gears up for 'grandest' Victory Day amid Ukraine conflict

Russia marks the event more than three years into its offensive, and after pummelling Ukraine with a string of deadly attacks in April despite US President Donald Trump pushing for a peace deal.

The Kremlin launched a full-scale attack on Ukraine in February 2022, hoping to take the country in days, but has since become embroiled in a huge conflict that has killed tens of thousands.

Putin has ordered a three-day truce in Ukraine to coincide with the event -- which Kyiv has denounced as a ceasefire "just for the parade".

Ukraine -- which has hit Russia and Moscow with drones during the conflict -- has said it cannot take responsibility for what happens in Russia and has said some countries approached it to request safety for their leaders attending the parade.

Three days before the Red Square military parade, it fired over 100 drones at Russia overnight, including at Moscow, forcing the capital's major airports to close for hours.

Despite the shadow of the conflict, officials promise that commemorations this year -- the 80th anniversary of the defeat of the Nazis -- will be the "grandest" to date.

During the 25 years of Putin's rule, the Kremlin has turned May 9 into a holiday celebrating statehood and patriotism.

It is marked with a grand military parade on Red Square, where Putin addresses the nation.

Putin has used WWII narratives to justify sending troops to Ukraine, vowing in 2022 to "de-Nazify" the country and since comparing the current conflict to the Soviet war effort.

He has repeatedly accused the West of not recognising Moscow's feats in WWII and has argued that the Soviet Union was the war's main victor.

Ahead of celebrations, Putin singled out the Russian nation -- out of all Soviet peoples -- for praise in defeating the Nazis.

"All the peoples of the Soviet Union put in a huge input... But, of course, because of its size, the Russian Federation, of course, put in the maximum contribution to this victory," he told school children in Moscow last week.

- 'Great Patriotic War' -

World War II is officially remembered in Russia as the "Great Patriotic War", beginning with Germany's surprise invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 and ending with Germany's capitulation in 1945.

The period between 1939 and 1941 -- when the Soviet Union had a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany and invaded Poland -- is glossed over in official history books.

The war had a devastating impact on the Soviet Union, resulting in more than 20 million civilian and military deaths.

Throughout his rule, Putin has tapped into this national trauma, making May 9 Russia's most important public holiday and championing his army as defenders against Fascism.

Authorities banned criticism of the military days after the Ukraine offensive began and have since charged thousands in the biggest domestic crackdown in Russia's post-Soviet history.

School textbooks introduced amid the offensive refer to Ukraine as an "ultra-nationalist state", likening it to the Nazi occupation regime that ruled the country between 1941 and 1944.

Ukraine has criticised the event, saying it has "nothing to do with the victory over Nazism" and said those marching on Red Square are "quite likely" implicit in crimes against Ukrainians.

- Slovak PM defiant -

Leaders of around 20 countries, including China's Xi Jinping, have accepted invitations to join this year's celebration, according to the Kremlin.

Moscow has also not ruled out that North Korean troops -- which helped Russia oust Ukrainian forces from its Kursk region -- will parade on Red Square for the first time.

The European Union has warned its members not to travel to Moscow for the event.

But Slovakia's prime minister, Robert Fico, has defied Brussels and vowed to attend.

"I am simply going. Full stop," he said in a video on social media on Monday.

Slovakia had denounced Moscow's offensive in 2022 but Fico has strained relations with neighbouring Ukraine and has called for an end to western weapons supplies to Kyiv.

"I understand that there is a war going on," he said. "But I will not mix the present with what happened between 1941 and 1945."

Moscow's Victory Day parade featured only one tank last year for the second year running, in what Atlantic Council analyst Peter Dickinson wrote was a reminder of Russia's "catastrophic losses" on the battlefield.

Authorities in some parts of Russia, including the southern region of Krasnodar, have cancelled May 9 parades amid fears of possible Ukrainian sabotage.

Z.Ramadan--SF-PST