Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted that NATO and the United States were to blame for the war in Ukraine. That was the message of his speech during Victory Day, Russia’s annual celebration of the end of World War II against Nazi Germany.
Putin’s well-known nostalgia for the former Soviet Union was on full display as he defended his decision to invade Ukraine. He said that May 9, 1945, was a day of triumph for “our united Soviet people.” Saying that the decision to invade Ukraine was “the only correct one,” Putin claimed the Ukrainian and Belorussian cities of Kharkiv, Kyiv, Sevastopol, and Minsk as part of the “fatherland.”
Speaking to the Russian troops involved in the war, Putin said, “You are fighting for the motherland, for its future, so that no one forgets the lessons of World War II.” About 11,000 troops marched. They were bolstered by just 131 armored vehicles during the parade. Many of the newer T-90 tanks and Pantsir anti-aircraft vehicles were notably absent this year, leading many analysts to believe these assets have been deployed.
“There is no place in the world for executioners, punishers, and Nazis,” Putin added, invoking the ridiculous claim that Nazis run the Ukrainian government.
Putin, “Surrounded”
Speaking at Red Square, Putin listed several reasons for the Russian “special military operation.” He said that NATO was surrounding Russia and was putting bases inside Ukraine.
“Russia called on the West for an honest dialogue, to search for reasonable, compromise solutions, to take into account each other’s interests. All in vain. The NATO countries did not want to hear us, which means that in fact, they had completely different plans,” Putin said. “The danger grew every day. Russia gave a pre-emptive rebuff to aggression. It was forced, timely, and the only right decision. The decision of a sovereign, strong, independent country.”
That claim was debunked by British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, who provides daily intelligence reports on the war.
“NATO accounts for 6% of his land border,” Wallace said, according to PA Media. “That’s not being surrounded if only 6% of your land border is NATO countries.”
As for NATO bases in Ukraine, “I’m sure the Ukrainian ambassador will tell you there weren’t any NATO bases in Ukraine,” Wallace added.
Mentioning Putin, Wallace said, “I think he is believing what he wants to believe… a slight shine of desperation.”
No Flyover
A planned flyover for Russian combat aircraft was curiously cancelled. It was expected to showcase 77 aircraft. They were to fly over Moscow’s Red Square and would have included eight MiG-29 fighters aligned in a “Z” formation.
Russia’s state-run TASS reported that planned airshows in Samara, Kaliningrad, and Murmansk were also cancelled, supposedly for bad weather. RIA Novosti quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov as confirming the weather decision. However, the Victory Day parade in Moscow showed mostly sunny skies.
The decision prompted a question: Why would the Russians cancel the planned airshow? Army Gen. Oleg Salyukov, commander of the Russian ground forces, said that nine military airfields are used for the annual planned flyover. While the weather can look good in Moscow, that is not necessarily the case outside the city.
Ukrainian Army Tank Firing. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
Russian nuclear weapons. Image Credit: Russian State Media.
Russian President Putin addressing the nation.
“I think what you saw is already impressive,” Mr. Salyukov told Interfax when asked about the cancellation.
Steve Balestrieri is a 1945 National Security Columnist. He has served as a US Army Special Forces NCO, and Warrant Officer before injuries forced his early separation. In addition to writing for 19fortyfive.com and for another military news organization, he has covered the NFL for PatsFans.com for more than 10 years. His work was regularly featured in the Millbury-Sutton Chronicle and Grafton News newspapers in Massachusetts.
Illurion
May 9, 2022 at 8:13 pm
More than likely, the reason the “planned flyover by 77 Russian aircraft during the May 9th Russian Victory Parade” was cancelled was because “PUTIN WAS AFRAID THAT ONE OR MORE OF HIS OWN RUSSIAN AIRCRAFT PILOTS WOULD FIRE MISSILES AT “HIM” AND HIS GENERALS.
ANWAR SADAT OF EGYPT WAS EXECUTED BY HIS OWN SOLDIERS DURING THEIR “YEARLY VICTORY PARADE.”
At this point in time, while no one has mentioned it yet, it is my belief that Putin “probably sleeps in a different location every night”, as he can “trust no one.”
Putin is the new “Yasser Arafat.”
CK
May 10, 2022 at 10:02 am
He has only himself to blame.
As usual, he will look for scapegoats, excuses, deflections, but he engineered this situation, and now he (and Russians) pay the price for it.
People get the governments they deserve. So it’s time for Russians to show they deserve better.
Alex
May 10, 2022 at 11:02 am
And now, instead of tantrums and fantasies, let’s face it.
Zelensky is a Kremlin agent.
So in just two months:
1. Actively extorted money from the West.
2. Strengthened the ruble.
3. In addition to the Crimea, he gave Donbass to Russia.
4.. Turned off the gas at the whole of Europe, sending it to the Middle Ages.
5. Ruined the pockets of drivers, farmers, entrepreneurs and manufacturers in the EU and the US.
6. Since the beginning of the special operation, almost all major competitors from Russia have left, making room for Russian entrepreneurs.
7. Begging for so many weapons that even Scholz said that the Bundeswehr was running out of weapons “for himself.”
8. He collected all the crap of the Ukrainian Nazi subculture – tattooed Nazis, outcasts, idiots, maniacs, murderers from Europe and other countries in one place, where the Russians kill them in batches and promptly deliver them to Bandera.
9. United the Russian people around their leader. Russia has never known such powerful support for the actions of the President and his cabinet during all the terms of his reign.
10. He sent into emigration the entire corrupt beau monde of the Russian stage and cinema, with pockets full of “wishes” from the grateful Russian people.
Never before has Russia been as good as under Zelensky.
Alex
May 10, 2022 at 1:48 pm
Jim Chambers (Fergie Chambers) – a journalist from NY spoke about how he SAW the attacks of Ukrainian fascists on peaceful Ukrainians. He told how he SAW what horrors the Bandera Nazis were doing to the Ukrainians. He said that food and medicine appeared when the Russian Liberators came.
He told how he SAW Nazi paraphernalia wherever the military of Ukraine abandoned their positions (swastikas, Mein Kampf books, paintings by Hitler, Bandera, etc.).
He SAW how opponents of the regime of the Ukrainian authorities were detained, tortured and killed. He told how the people of Ukraine are waging their struggle for existence and for peace without Bandera Nazis. He spoke about how the Russian liberators help civilians and the Ukrainians ask the Russians not to leave. The Ukrainians are upset that the Russians came late, they should have come earlier.
He said: “Our American weapons have only exacerbated the useless bloodshed in a battle that the Ukrainian fascists can never win. I am ashamed to carry an American passport with me. The world desperately needs a Russian victory: at the end of Ukrainian Nazism and at the end of the American NATO empire. World needs victory for freedom.”
Illurion
May 10, 2022 at 4:15 pm
Alex is mentally ill, which is why he is so easily swayed by perverts.
speedster
May 10, 2022 at 5:47 pm
Putin in the speech is claiming ukraine territory belonged to Russia, which rather ignored the fact that ukraine existed centuries before Russia and that it was a Ukrainian Prince who set off North centuries ago to found Moscow.
What Putin is doing is short term memory, recalling the defunct Soviet union where Ukraine was a republic within the Soviet union, but not a subservient, territory.
Putin has a playbook of excuses to invade smaller countries, just as with ukraine. The difference this time is that ukraine has a blank cheque for western superior weapons. As a former astute gambler I usually knew when the odds did not favour and quit.
Putin appears to resemble those losers they don’t know when to quit.
Alex
May 11, 2022 at 12:17 pm
A bit of truth.
The head of the UN monitoring mission, Matilda Bogner, said that the organization has reliable information about the torture of Russian soldiers in Ukrainian captivity:
“Ukraine and Russia must promptly and effectively investigate all allegations of torture and ill-treatment of prisoners of war,” she said.
The military-civilian administration of the Kherson region announced their intention to appeal to Putin with a request to include the region into Russia:
“We intend to live as part of the Russian Federation. We fully cooperate and feel as one with the regions of Russia.”
Pfizer, Moderna, Merck, Gilead are testing medicines in Ukraine, bypassing international safety standards, reducing the costs of research programs and gaining significant competitive advantages. Coronavirus vaccine manufacturers have been involved in US military biological activities.
Along with American pharmaceutical companies and Pentagon contractors, Ukrainian state structures are involved in military biological activities, the main tasks of which are to conceal illegal activities, conduct field and clinical trials, and provide the necessary biomaterial.
The American side expanded its research potential both in the field of creating biological weapons and in the field of obtaining information about antibiotic resistance and the presence of antibodies to various diseases in the population of specific regions.
Ukraine has long become a training ground for Western countries to create biological weapons components and test new samples of pharmaceuticals.
The United States, as part of its military biological program in Ukraine, used Mariupol as a regional center for work with the cholera pathogen.
Evidence was obtained of the emergency destruction of documents confirming work with the US military department. A preliminary analysis of the surviving documentation indicates the use of Mariupol as a regional center for the collection and certification of the cholera pathogen.
The selected strains were sent to the public health center in Kyiv, which is entrusted with the functions of further sending biomaterials to the United States.
This activity has been carried out since 2014, which is confirmed by the acts of transfer of strains.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby on Fox News recalled that the United States supplied weapons to Ukraine long before the start of the Russian special operation.
“The Biden administration was supplying weapons long before the invasion. The first billion dollars that the president allocated for Ukraine did indeed include assistance with lethal weapons … The United States, Canada, Britain, other allies actually helped prepare the Ukrainians, ”Kirby quoted the TV channel as saying.
As military experts and analysts had previously assumed, Ukraine would have brought down all its military power on the Donbass in any case, but Russia was the first to come to the aid of Donyuass.
The world is watching. The world sees. Lies are dying.
Illurion
May 11, 2022 at 9:15 pm
Dear Alex:
A bit of truth.
Russia is losing the war.
Ukraine will not only win the war, but will retake all of the Crimean lands that were taken in 2014.
Putin will be executed.
Russia as a nation will cease to exist, and will be taken over by China.