With Ukraine’s Assent, Russia’s Soldiers March Through Red Square in Subdued ‘Victory Day’ Parade

With Ukraine’s permission, President Putin held his military parade unmolested on Moscow’s Red Square Saturday morning. For Kyiv, the payoff was the release of 1,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war. President Volodymyr Zelensky posted on X: “Red Square is less important to us than the lives of Ukrainian prisoners who can be returned home.”That was not the spin out of Washington and Moscow. President Trump, building on a 90-minute phone call from Mr. Putin last week, said he negotiated the “1,000 for 1,000” prisoner swap. Apparently, there was no Trump-Zelensky phone call. Instead, the deal was cut by Ukraine’s chief negotiator Rustem Umerov. He met in Miami on Friday with Mr. Trump’s negotiators — his son-in-law Jared Kushner and businessman Steve Witkoff.From the Kremlin side, Mr. Putin declared a three-day ceasefire to halt all hostilities between the two nations through Monday. However, Mr. Zelensky yesterday evening issued a decree “to permit the holding of a parade in the city of Moscow.” For the duration of the parade, generally 90 minutes, “the territorial sector of Red Square shall be excluded” from any Ukrainian military action.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov spluttered that the Ukrainian decree was a “silly joke” by “a clown show.” Russia does not need anyone’s permission to hold the annual celebration of Russian military might. Yet Ukraine’s new long-range drones and missiles are fast changing the rules of the game. This week, Kremlin insecurity was written all over the parade. This annual event routinely features tanks, missiles, and, for 90 minutes, Mr. Putin exposed on a reviewing stand above Lenin’s Tomb.Russian servicemen participate in the Victory Day military parade at Moscow on May 9, 2026. Alexander Zemlianichenko/Pool via APAll army equipment was dropped. Press credentials were pulled from all foreign publications accredited to cover the parade. Russian television was ordered to broadcast the parade on a delay. Subway stations around central Moscow were closed. Cell phone service, a guidance aid for drones, was cut off in greater Moscow, home to 15 percent of Russia’s population. Drone alerts closed all of Moscow’s airports Friday. Snipers were on rooftops. Mobile anti-aircraft batteries were posted around the Kremlin.Mr. Zelensky says foreign leaders sounded him out earlier in the week to know if it would be safe to attend the parade. The Slovak prime minister, Robert Fico, the only European Union leader in Moscow this weekend, said he would not attend the parade. Instead, he brought a peace parley message for Mr. Putin from the Ukrainian leader. The two neighbors met Monday in Armenia, another former Soviet republic that has split with Putin’s Moscow.Speaking at the parade Saturday, Putin hailed Russian troops fighting in Ukraine, declaring they “face an aggressive force that is armed and supported by the entire bloc of NATO.” His voice booming across columns of troops massed on Red Square, he promised: “Victory has always been and will be ours.”Changing the regional power equation is Ukraine’s fast evolving drone and missile technology. These home-made weapons fly further, fly faster, and carry bigger punches. Bringing the war home to Russians, Ukrainian missiles can now reach 70 percent of Russia’s population of 144 million. Ukraine’s new defense minister, Mykhaylo Fedorov, says Kyiv bought more drones in the first three months of this year than it did in all of last year.In the last week, Ukrainian missiles hit a Russian Navy missile carrier in the Caspian Sea, struck an armaments factory in the Ural Mountains 1,100 miles to the East of Ukraine, and hit so many oil and gas export terminals in the region around St. Petersburg that the local governor declared it “a front line region.” Situated on the Baltic, Leningrad Region is 700 miles north of Ukraine. Following a careful strategy, Ukraine’s air war architects first focused on knocking out Russian air defenses. In March alone, Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces destroyed 41 Russian air defense units, according to forces commander Robert Brovdi.After clearing air corridors, Ukraine sent 7,000 long-range missiles into Russia in March, double the number of six months earlier. That marked the first time that Ukraine sent more missiles and long-range drones into Russia than Russia sent into Ukraine. When short-range drones are added to the tally, Ukraine made 357,000 combat sorties in Russia in April, hitting 160,000 targets, says Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi.“Why waste drones on the ‘great wall’?” drone commander Major Brovdi asked the Guardian yesterday, referring to the air defense rings around Moscow. “If you hit the energy sector or military that’s the best strike — on the periphery.”Ukraine’s ability to bomb Russia unhindered has been so great that Reuters reported last month that Ukrainian drone strikes have knocked out 40 percent of Russia’s oil export capacity. Reuters calls this “the most severe oil supply disruption in the modern history of Russia.” With Russian air defenses either ineffectual, or centered on Moscow, Ukraine often hits the same targets again and again. For example, Ukrainian missileers hit the Black Sea oil export port of Tuapse four times in two weeks.Largely ignored in the West, the destruction in Tuapse’s oil complex is a psychological blow to modern Russians. Midway along Russia’s Black Sea ‘Gold Coast,’ Tuapse is better known for its spas and luxury, all-inclusive resorts. Consonant with its beautiful people image, Tuapse was the birthplace of Natalie Glebova, Miss Universe 2005.Today Tuapse is known for burning oil flowing down city streets, black rain falling from the skies, and miles of beaches polluted with oily globs. Although local officials bravely invite tourists to come to Tuapse for their May holidays, that is increasingly difficult. On Friday, a Ukrainian drone slammed into the air traffic control center for Southern Russia, located in Rostov-on-Don. This forced the closing of 13 airports in the region through Monday.This environmental disaster is smudging more than a beach resort city. Russians know that the stalemated war with Ukraine has passed the four-year mark. This makes it longer than the Soviet Union’s fight against Nazi Germany. The 81st anniversary of that victory was the reason for Saturday’s parade.“Putin is losing his magic,” Carnegie Russia’s Aleksandr Baunov wrote last week. “Power remains undivided in his hands, but the magic of power is fading.”

With Ukraine’s Assent, Russia’s Soldiers March Through Red Square in Subdued ‘Victory Day’ Parade

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