DREAD SQUARE
VLADIMIR Putin rushed through a speech in Moscow's Red Square today to open a diminished parade marking Russia's victory in World War II.
Far fewer troops and a solitary rusting tank dating from the war were on display amid tight security after a suspected assassination attempt on the tyrant.
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Footage showed a flying object exploding in flames in the night above the fortress in central Moscow - where the president has his office and an apartment - in an attack Russia blamed on Ukraine.
Putin, 70, was not inside at the time and was not injured, the Kremlin said.
Ahead of the parade, he arrived with an aide carrying the briefcase that contains the launch codes for Russia's nuclear weapons.
He then took his seat as the giant clock in Red Square struck 10am, with the troops lined up in front of him.
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The tyrant then rushed through a speech in which he bizarrely blamed the West for the Ukraine war before the event got underway.
He said: "Today civilisation is once again at a decisive turning point. A real war has been unleashed against our Motherland."
The annual parade to commemorate the end of World War Two is the most important date in Russia’s military calendar.
But with the Russian death toll in Ukraine mounting, far fewer troops were marching this year.
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And with the huge losses of equipment it's sustained, none of the modern hardware that Russia likes to show off was on display.
A solitary WWII vintage commemorative T-34 was the only tank that took part and instead of usual show of armoured might, it was followed by just 10 armoured jeeps.
The usual flypast over Moscow and other cities was cancelled again, after a lack of trained pilots grounded it last year.
Russia has lost an eye-watering 10,000 military vehicles since Putin unleashed his Ukraine bloodbath.
That includes almost 2,000 tanks, 2,300 infantry fighting vehicles, 3,00 armoured personnel carriers and 2,00 multiple rocket launchers.
The massively scaled back event saw fewer than 50 vehicles compared to more than 200 on a normal year in a humiliating blow to Putin, whose army has 1000 tanks left.
The Russians did, however, remind the world of their vast nuclear capability.
The most formidable weapons on show were the mobile nuclear missile launchers, the 16-wheeled Topol-Ms.
The event this year came amid tight security with the use of drones and ride-sharing services in Russia's largest cities curbed and even jet skis banned on the canals of St. Petersburg.
Snipers were also seen on the roofs of buildings around Red Square.
More than two dozen cities and towns - near the Ukraine border and also in more distant regions - cancelled plans to stage their own military parades over security concerns.
Authorities have scrapped plans to hold so-called 'Immortal Regiment' marches in which people carry photos of veterans or family members who died in World War II.
Ahead of the parade, Russia launched a barrage of drone, missile and air strikes on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities overnight.
Ukraine said its air defences shot down 23 of 25 missiles, fired chiefly at the capital Kyiv, and there were no reported casualties.
There have also been suspected sabotage attacks on oil depots and trains as well as assassinations of pro-Kremlin figures.
More than two dozen cities and towns near the Ukraine border as well as more distant Russian regions, have cancelled plans to stage their own military parades over security concerns.
The parade marks the day when Nazi Germany surrendered to the Soviet Union in 1945.
Putin has long used it to rally public support and demonstrate the country’s military prowess as well as to boost his power by stoking nationalist fervour.
He has also used the memory of the Soviet war effort to justify the invasion of Ukraine, claiming it is fighting "fascists" supported by the West.
Earlier on Monday, Ukraine had commemorated the end of World War II together with Europe.
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President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed that Russian forces would be defeated just as Nazi Germany was beaten in 1945.
The Ukrainian leader said the Kremlin was responsible for "aggression and annexation, occupation and deportation", as well as "mass murder and torture".
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