On Monday, Zelenskyy announced that he was moving the date of Ukraine's own Victory Day celebration and renaming it Europe Day. Putin's speech made clear once more that the Russian president has no intention of negotiating currently or scaling back his ambitions to defeat Ukraine.

'But we fended off international terrorism, we will protect residents of Donbas too and ensure our security.' 'Today, the civilization is once again at a decisive, turning point and an actual war has been unleashed against our homeland again,' Putin said. He claimed that Russia 'once again' was fighting for 'civilization' and he painted a topsy-turvy picture that Moscow wants peace with all nations. He also directly compared his ongoing war in Ukraine to the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany in 1945, which is what Victory Day commemorates. As he has done in previous remarks, Putin claimed that the Ukraine war was 'unleashed' on Russia and blamed 'Western global elites' while calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a puppet. Meanwhile, Putin delivered his annual Victory Day speech during the parade in Moscow's Red Square on Tuesday, which was fairly standard. But perhaps what was most notable was the cancelling of the parade in at least 24 Russian cities due to security concerns that Ukrainian forces might be able to strike them, likely because of Russia's shortages of troops and equipment. The flypast part of the event, which usually involves helicopters and fighter jets, was cancelled on Tuesday despite clear, sunny skies in the Russian capital.

That's compared to 130 during the 2019 parade. There appeared to be approximately 50 military vehicles taking part in the Victory Day parade in Moscow on Tuesday. Instead, the parade was almost exclusively light armored vehicles, similar to Humvees. Analysts noted there was seemingly only one heavy tank in the entire parade this year - a World War II-era T-34 museum piece that led the procession.

The military parade in Moscow's Red Square on Tuesday was a significantly shrunken version of itself - thinned out due to Russia's huge losses in Ukraine and its urgent need for equipment on the front lines. But this year, it was effectively the opposite. LONDON - Russia's Victory Day parade is meant to be a projection of President Vladimir Putin's military might.

War for the oaks