Sawt Falasteen - Putin evokes WWII victory to rally Russia behind Ukraine offensive

The Kremlin is using its annual Victory Day parade -- marking 80 years since the end of World War II -- to whip up patriotism at home and project strength abroad as its troops fight in Ukraine.

More than 20 foreign dignitaries, including China's President Xi Jinping, were in Red Square for the event, the fourth since Moscow launched a full-scale military assault on its neighbour in 2022.

"The whole country, society and people support the participants of the special military operation," Putin said in an address to the parade, using Moscow's preferred language for its Ukraine campaign.

Around 1,500 troops that had fought in Ukraine were among 11,000 marching on Red Square, state media reported.

"We are proud of their bravery and determination, of the fortitude that has always brought us only victory," Putin said.

Ukraine has called the events in Russia a "parade of cynicism".

Putin sat next to Xi in the stands as the parade got under way. He was also filmed shaking the hands of WWII veterans.

Since sending troops into Ukraine, Putin has frequently drawn parallels between Russia's modern-day army and the Soviet soldiers who fought Nazi Germany.

"Russia has been and will remain an indestructible barrier against Nazism, Russophobia and anti-Semitism," Putin said, echoing language regularly used to justify his three-year offensive on Ukraine.

Ukraine has dismissed Putin's claims that he launched his offensive to "de-Nazify" the country as "incomprehensible".

They have also been rejected by the West and independent experts.

- 'Proud' -

Moscow has been adorned in red flags and signs reading "victory" for the occasion.

"The holiday makes us proud of our country," said Vladimir, 40, who came with his pregnant wife and friends to see the military gear on display in the capital.

At a dinner in honour of visiting foreign leaders on the eve of the parade, Putin proposed a toast to "victory".

Russia began its assault on Ukraine in February 2022, hoping to take the country in days, but has since become embroiled in a huge, bloody conflict that has killed tens of thousands.

Security has been tight in Moscow, where authorities have jammed mobile internet connections in the capital, citing the threat of Ukrainian attacks.

Putin has declared a unilateral three-day truce in Ukraine to mark the occasion.

Kyiv, which dismissed it as political theatrics, has accused Russia's army of violating the order to halt fighting hundreds of times.

Kyiv reported strikes in the southern city of Kherson and the central Dnipropetrovsk region overnight, with two people wounded.

Authorities in western Russia's Belgorod border region said a Ukrainian drone strike hit the city council building, adding that no one was injured.

Kyiv argues the parade has "nothing to do with the victory over Nazism" and that those marching on Red Square were "quite likely" implicit in crimes against Ukrainians.

The two most important guests this year are China's Xi and Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Despite warnings and criticism from Brussels, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico will also attend -- the only leader from the European Union taking part.

Aleksandar Vucic, president of Serbia, a country with historically strong ties to Moscow, will also join in.

The day before the parade, Xi and Putin met in the Kremlin, where the two held talks for more than three hours and issued messages of defiance to the West.

- '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.

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 quarter-century in power, 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.

In a symbolic show of support for Kyiv to coincide with the parade, Ukraine's Western backers at a meeting in the Ukrainian city of Lviv are expected on Friday to sign off on the creation of a special tribunal to try Russia's top leadership over its military offensive.

Y.Zaher--SF-PST