President Putin gave a bear hug to the North Korean three-star general who oversees North Korean soldiers in Russia, Kim Yong Bok. On the reviewing stand, next to Lenin’s tomb, the Communist Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, beamed as his nation’s troops marched across Red Square. Also on the stand was Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, fresh from signing a “strategic partnership” with Russia.

Where Western leaders like President George W. Bush once stood, the bleachers for today’s parade for the 80th anniversary of World War II reflected the new cold war between Russia and the West. America’s ambassador to Moscow, Lynne Tracy, was a no-show. 

In face of a European boycott, Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, was the lone leader of the 27 member nations of the European Union to attend. To get to Moscow, his plane had to make a long detour over the Black Sea because Poland and Lithuania banned VIP overflights for the gathering. 

Underlining Eurasia’s new East-West polarization, foreign ministers of 37 states, including most European Union countries, Britain, and Canada, gathered today for a counter-celebration: “Europe Day” at Lviv in Western Ukraine. There, they signed off on the creation of a special Council of Europe tribunal to prosecute Mr. Putin and high-level Russian officials for the crime of aggression against Ukraine.

Britain’s foreign minister, David Lammy, drew a parallel with the 1945 allied victory in Europe, saying that 80 years later “in Ukraine we are [again] on the frontlines of that fight for freedom … sending a powerful message to Putin and his cronies and those that stand with him that freedom will prevail.”

Accentuating the move to new-old alliances, President Macron and Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, signed today at Nancy, France, a military and nuclear energy mutual assistance treaty. Earlier, Mr. Tusk had said this pact could lead to extending France’s nuclear umbrella to cover Poland. In the 1930s, France and Poland were allies in face of growing threats from Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

At Moscow today, Mr. Putin’s goal was to break his international isolation by staging the largest gathering of foreign leaders — 28 — since he launched his full-scale attack on Ukraine in February 2022. Three were presidents of heavyweight Brics nations — China’s Xi, Egypt’s Abdel Fattah El Sisi, and Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. 

Mr. da Silva gave the Russian leader an abraço and launched  into a speech denouncing what he called “the latest decisions by the U.S. president to unilaterally put tariffs on trade with all countries in the world.” The 79-year-old leftist vowed to strengthen Brazil’s strategic partnership with Russia, citing “political, commercial, cultural, scientific, and technological interests.” 

Some visitors represented economically fragile client states — the leaders of the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and the president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel. As a reward for the 13-hour Havana-Moscow flight, Mr. Díaz-Canel won a promise of $1 billion in Russian investment in Cuba through 2030.

On the Red Square parade ground, there were veterans of Russia’s war against Ukraine and static displays of drones used by Russia in Ukraine. Although Mr. Putin’s big war against Ukraine has dragged on for three years and two months — almost as long as the Soviet war against Nazi Germany — the Russian leader hopes that today’s massive “Victory” signs on Red Square signal his future in Ukraine.

“For decades, most European countries have marked the end of World War II with solemn memorial services while collectively vowing ‘never again,’” the Atlantic Council’s Peter Dickinson writes. “Under Putin, Russians have come to embrace an altogether more menacing form of militant remembrance accompanied by the unofficial slogan ‘we can repeat it.’”

After three days of drone attacks on Moscow, Ukraine held off today. Waves of Ukrainian drones disrupted as many as 500 commercial flights this week. Many holiday travelers saw their flights delayed or cancelled. Moscow airports took on the air of urban campgrounds.

In his “Victory Day” speech, Mr. Putin pulled his punches and let the choreography do the talking. Instead of the anti-Western tirades of past parades, he said Russia “highly” values the contribution of American and European allies in their “common fight” against Nazi Germany.

Mr. Putin’s milder discourse comes as there are signs that, after three months of fruitless talks, President Trump is losing his patience with the Russian leader. Yesterday, as Russia embarked on a three-day “parade truce,” Mr. Trump took to social media to call for a 30-day cease-fire. 

“Hopefully, an acceptable cease-fire will be observed,” Mr. Trump said. “If the cease-fire is not respected, the U.S. and its partners will impose further sanctions.” Since President Zelensky has said he will start a cease-fire “immediately,” the American sanctions threat would seem to be aimed at Russia. 

Mr. Putin spoke after Mr. Trump’s call for a cease-fire to allow for talks on a lasting peace deal. Mr. Zelensky has said he’s willing to abide by a 30-day truce. Mr. Putin has so far resisted a halt to fighting while insisting on Russia’s maximalist demands in return for a settlement to the war he started that’s now in its fourth year.

Finland’s president, Alexander Stubb, told reporters in Norway today that he talked in the last 24 hours with Messrs. Trump and Zelensky.

Mr. Stubb said he feels “carefully optimistic … in terms of the cease-fire and the peace process.” He added: “We can’t give a timetable now, but in an ideal world, a Ukraine cease-fire would be declared over the weekend.”

However, the clashing celebrations of May 9 reflect how a new cold war chasm divides the continent. At Ivangorod, a western Russia border town, authorities posted a large screen to broadcast the Red Square parade to their Estonian neighbors. Across the Narva River, Estonians unfurled a large banner on the east flank of 14th-century Narva Castle. Merging images of Mr. Putin and Hitler, the banner proclaimed: “Putler War Criminal!”