Moscow and Kyiv evoke memories of Nazi Germany for very different ends & More News Here

In Kyiv — not like Moscow — there was no Victory Day parade. Instead, Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelensky posted to social media a video of himself strolling down one of the empty business streets of the town.

He walked previous tank limitations and sandbags because the video flashed again to earlier, peaceable holidays and parades — with a a lot much less haggard-looking Zelensky watching a flypast.

“We are proud of our ancestors who, together with other nations in the anti-Hitler coalition, defeated Nazism,” mentioned Zelensky, who went on to call a number of Ukrainian cities — now beneath Russian occupation or assault — the place the Germans had been defeated over seven many years in the past.

“They expelled the Nazis from all over Ukraine, but the cities I named are especially inspiring us today. They give us faith that we will drive the occupiers out of our own land for sure.

“This shouldn’t be a conflict of two armies. This is a conflict of two worldviews. We are free individuals who go our personal manner.”

The scene in Moscow was very different on Monday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told a huge military parade in Moscow’s Red Square that Russian troops are in eastern Ukraine to “defend the motherland.”

He insisted the invasion of Ukraine (which he continues to call a “particular army operation”) was necessary and had been provoked by the West.

There had been speculation Putin would use the event to make a major announcement about Russia’s next steps in its war on Ukraine. He didn’t. Instead, he used his speech to again insist that Russia acted in self-defence.

“The hazard was rising,” Putin said, arguing that “Russia has pre-emptively repulsed an aggression” through a military campaign that was “pressured, well timed and the one right resolution by a sovereign, highly effective and unbiased nation.”

He repeatedly claimed that Ukraine was planning to attack Russia — something Kyiv has flatly denied. The United Nations has overwhelmingly condemned Russia’s invasion and has called repeatedly for Russian troops to withdraw.

Russia has suffered significant losses of soldiers and equipment in Ukraine. Many believed Putin would use his May 9 speech to order a general mobilization.

Dominque Arel, chair of Ukrainian studies at the University of Ottawa, said he wonders what a general mobilization order could have accomplished.

“Military consultants are telling us [there’s] no assure that it might truly strengthen the Russian military, as a result of right here we’re speaking about conscripts which might be poorly skilled. Reserves, additionally very poorly skilled,” he said.

All across eastern Ukraine, air raid sirens went off overnight and throughout the day. Four missile strikes were reported in the Odesa region. Fierce fighting was reported also in the area of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, the last holdout for besieged Ukrainian forces in the ruined city.