Zelenskyy says Ukraine will not attack Putin's military parade in Moscow in return for prisoner swap
Category: News & Politics
Via: perrie-halpern • 6 months ago • 21 commentsBy: Yuliya Talmazan (NBC News)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
May 8, 2026, 3:32 PM EDTBy Yuliya Talmazan and Daryna Mayer
There will be no neat rows of tanks and ballistic missile carriers rolling down the smooth cobbles of Moscow's Red Square on Saturday, as Russia scales back what is usually a grand militaristic Victory Day parade celebrating the Soviet Union's role in defeating Nazi Germany.
More than four years into the war in Ukraine, Russia's defense ministry last week cited the "current operational situation" as it announced the change. A large amount of Russia's military hardware is tied up in the conflict, but there were also signs the Kremlin was worried about increasingly damaging Ukrainian drone attacks deep inside Russia, and what appears to be Moscow's diminishing ability to stop them.
Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday appeared to give specific assurances that there would not be a strike on Moscow's Red Square, under a temporary ceasefire deal that includes a prisoner exchange to free 1,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war.
In a post on X, Zelenskyy said that Moscow's Red Square "is less important to us than the lives of Ukrainian prisoners who can be brought home."
Atypically, his statement came alongside a presidential decree specifying that "taking into account numerous requests," there would be no attack on Moscow "to permit the holding of a parade."
Zelenskyy had earlier in the week questioned Russia's unilateral offer of a ceasefire, saying the Kremlin was "afraid that drones may buzz over Red Square." Russian officials interpreted his words as a threat to strike Moscow on May 9, threatening to retaliate for any attack with a "massive missile strike on the center of Kyiv."
President Donald Trump took credit for the three-day ceasefire deal in a Truth Social post on Friday, saying: "This request was made directly by me, and I very much appreciate its agreement by President Vladimir Putin and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy."
Ukrainian drone strikes have become an increasing headache for Putin. Days ahead of the parade, a Ukrainian drone crashed into a building just four miles away from the Kremlin.
The Kremlin said "additional measures" would be taken to protect Putin during the parade, and authorities had warned about mobile internet outages in the capital to "ensure the safety of Victory Day celebrations."
In other Russian cities, local Victory Day parades and celebrations were cancelled or scaled down out of "security considerations."
Across his years in power, Putin has put a particular emphasis on the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany in what Russians call the "Great Patriotic War," a grounding pillar of national identity.
Putin himself re-introduced military hardware to the annual celebration back in 2008, showing off Russia's stockpiles of tanks and munitions in a shift toward a more aggressive posture.
"It's not saber rattling," he declared then. "We don't threaten anyone, we don't intend to," Putin said. "It's a demonstration of our growing defense capabilities."
Rena Marutian, professor of the department of global and national security at the Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv, said that in 2008, Putin wanted the world "to start fearing Russia again and him personally as its leader." Now, she said before the ceasefire announcement, "all these tanks, rockets and columns of military equipment" have turned from a projection of strength into "a target."
For most Russians, May 9, the date when the Soviet Union signed Germany's capitulation in 1945, holds huge sentimental value, with nearly every family touched by the war that claimed roughly 27 million Soviet lives. But under Putin, the Russian government has chosen to concentrate on the spectacle of the parade over solemn commemoration.
"It's a holiday that has always been widely celebrated in Russia, but Putin has appropriated it," said political analyst Kirill Rogov, who runs Russia-focused think tank Re: Russia. "And in that sense, this holiday has become Putin's holiday, and that of his militaristic and imperialist politics."
The Kremlin has also tried to symbolically link its victory over Nazi Germany to its war in Ukraine, portraying the fight with Kyiv as the continuation of its struggle against fascism. Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine have taken part in the Victory Day parades in Moscow since the 2022 invasion.
Ukraine previously warned a handful of Russia's allies planning to attend the festivities in Moscow against being in the capital on May 9, while Russia warned people to avoid Kyiv as it threatened retaliatory strikes there.
Speaking before the ceasefire announcement, Kyiv resident Anna Kalitvetseva told NBC News she was worried about retaliation from Russia on May 9, although she said there is hardly anything, "short of a nuclear weapon," that Russia can do to surprise the capital's residents with after years of deadly strikes.
While her grandfather and uncle died in World War II and May 9 has always been an important day for her family, Kalitvetseva, 52, said the "pure evil" of Putin's invasion has left her indifferent to Russia's Victory Day celebrations.
Ukraine marked its own Day of Remembrance on Friday, having shifted since Russia's invasion to adopt the date commonly celebrated on the continent as Victory in Europe (VE) Day. Millions of Ukrainians were part of the Soviet forces that fought during the war, suffering steep casualties.
There are definitely "traces of paranoia" in Putin's actions around the parade and request for a ceasefire, Rogov said. "I think he has been greatly impacted by the killing of [Supreme Leader] Ali Khamenei and the leadership of Iran. It has shown the vulnerability and possibility of such a step," he added. "Clearly, something has shifted for Putin in his perceptions."
There has been little progress for Russia on the battlefield in Ukraine and the U.S.-mediated peace talks remain stalled. While criticism of Putin is rare in Russia, a growing wave of public discontent has spilled out in recent weeks, including through some of the country's influencers, against the country's ailing economy, soaring prices and tightening restrictions on what Russians can do online.
Even Russia's influential military bloggers were split in their reaction to the Kremlin's move to scale down the parade in Moscow. Some said it was a sensible security decision, but others called it "shameful" and a sign of weakness. "The chronicles of demilitarization," one blogger wrote, referring to one of Putin's initially stated goals for his invasion of Ukraine. "This is such a disgrace!"
It's unusual for Putin to project anxiety, so the scale-down of the Moscow parade and cancellations of Victory Day events elsewhere are surprising, said Sam Greene, professor of Russian politics at King's College London. "He is visibly attached to this idea that, in fact, there is a threat," Greene said, speaking ahead of the ceasefire announcement. "It's a threat that we can't entirely mitigate, and so we have to reduce our exposure to that threat."
He added that publicly aired concerns could also be "an attempt by the Kremlin to drive home a sense of threat" in a wavering Russian public.
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I honestly cannot believe this war is still going on. We should have stomped all over Putin's ass right from the beginning.
Another national embarrassment.
Hey, schoolyard bully Kegsbreath, how about fighting an ACTUAL foe for once?
Oh, I forgot, pussy ass, psychopathic bullies only go after weaker adversaries.
Real bad ass, you are.
It appears that this war is coming to an end.
When it comes to predictions yours suggest that several more months to years is likely.
As to Iran, don't be surprised if JCPOA 2.0 is weaker than the original, but hey, it will all be masked by Trump's truly trashy D.C. makeovers (everything else bores him). Augustus he ain't!
Show me what you are talking about.
As to Iran, don't be surprised if JCPOA 2.0 is weaker than the original,
There will not be a 2.0. Iran can NEVER have nuclear weapons.
it will all be masked by Trump's truly trashy D.C. makeovers
The WH desperately needed an adequate reception room, so we aren't running over to a DC hotel. Somebody should have seen that.
americans dont want a national banquet hall filled with gold swirls and gaudy dodads that is two or three times the size of the white house and will dwarf it.
Are you speaking for America now?
Accept generosity when its given.
Accept rejection when it is coming from the majority of the country.
Why do most left wingers inevitably spell Americans with a small "a"?
There are South Americans, Central Americans, True North Americans, Indigenous Americans and your run-of-the-mill boring americans who dash about claiming to be numero uno cuz they can't count to duo. I hope that answers your queery.
Generosity exacts a price and this one just blossomed by a billion ... and it's still only Spring.
You were the one who claimed 4 years ago that Russia had all the cards and now because there is a wee truce it'll be all over soon? That wee "humanitarian" truce lasted not much more than a day.
"Despite a high-profile humanitarian ceasefire brokered for May 9–11, the Ukrainian General Staff reported 147 combat engagements on the truce’s opening day. Russian forces reportedly launched over 7,000 kamikaze drones and conducted 2,000 shelling attacks, resulting in civilian deaths in the Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Combat was most intense in the Pokrovsk and Kupiansk directions, while Ukrainian forces reported the neutralization of 840 Russian soldiers and 75 artillery systems amid the ongoing violations."
Your record of predicting which former politicians will be jailed by Trump's DOJ is abysmal. No one forgets.
Under the right circumstances either NK or the Paki's will sell them a few. It's inevitable because it's human nature.
Oh come on. The WH ( all of them ) has been receiving guests for over 200 years. We already have ballroom that can handle most large events
or are you calling Melania stupid?
The new ballroom is a boondoggle, just another appeal to his bottomless ego.
Lock her up. /s
And Ukraine just keeps inventing things "outside of the box'.
Their Flamingo missiles were impressive.
Now they strapped another missile to it to gain height and range. Ugly but effective.
Copying some other systems they decided to try launching them from their F-16s
Why not?
Last night several of those missiles traveled 1,000 miles from Ukrainian air space to natural gas and oil refineries deep in Russia
Putin must have noticed that the distance to Moscow is only half of that.
Along with much of the known world. I take it as quite a compliment that members remember things I say, though I do find it odd that they forget the many times that I've been proven right.
It is called "selective amnesia."
At least your colleague actually remembered one of my rare, failed predictions. You on the other hand simply make shit up.
I only had one other failed prediction. Remember what that one was? That was that Trump had no chance in 2016, although I voted for him anyway.
If you would like to go through what I was right about starting with the Russia/Collusion hoax being a hoax, I've be delighted to go through them with you/
Oh ya, that's when we found out about Judge Boesberg and DC juries.
You should take some time to read the Durham Report. Reading is more educational than memes.
You mean the real majority that voted for him or the imaginary majority in you are trying to gaslight everybody into believing?
Wouldn't those be the same Indigenous Americans who were pushed out by current South Americans, Central Americans, and North Americans? [deleted][✘]
it's a multi-million dollar fraud and kickback scheme, with american taxpayers as the victims ...