As discussed earlier in our policy this morning, there was a lot of commentary about the appearance of a single tank, and an aging style from World War II, at Russia’s annual Victory Day parade in Moscow yesterday.
But while this is widely perceived as a humiliating mirror image of the country’s massively depleted stockpiles of military equipment, the UK Ministry of Defence suggests it is most likely a component of an effort to avoid a public backlash.
In its intelligence update, the Defense Ministry states: “The composition of Russia’s annual Victory Day parade in Red Square highlighted the strategic apparatus and communications demanding situations facing the army 15 months after the war in Ukraine.
“It was reported that more than 8,000 more people participated in the parade, but most were auxiliary forces, paramilitaries and cadets from army educational institutions.
“The only corps of workers in the deployable formations of the normal forces were the contingents of the railway troops and the army police.
“An antique T-34 from a ceremonial unit was the only one in the parade. Despite heavy losses in Ukraine, Russia may have deployed more armored vehicles.
“The government has probably refrained from doing so because it needs internal complaints of the precedence given to parades over fighting operations. “
The UK will reportedly officially classify the Russian mercenary force Wagner Group as a terrorist organization.
The move, reported through The Times newspaper, would impose monetary and other sanctions, as a way to increase pressure on Russia.
Wagner’s mercenaries were at the forefront of Russia’s months-long assault on the Ukrainian town of Bakhmut.
The Interior Ministry has been building a case for two months and the ban is “imminent” in a few weeks, according to an official quoted through the newspaper.
If approved, it would be a thief’s crime to belong to Wagner, attend his meetings, inspire his own or use his logo in public, the Times said.
The designation would also impose monetary sanctions on the group, and there would be implications for Wagner’s ability to increase the budget if the budget were channeled to British monetary institutions, the report added.
There is no evidence that Wagner or Americans connected to the organization have been operating in Britain since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the newspaper said.
However, there were reportedly “suspicions” that the organisation helped exit the UK after currency sanctions were imposed on Russian oligarchs and Vladimir Putin’s allies.
The Interior Ministry said so when reviewing the report.
Russian air defense forces shot down an “enemy” drone in the Kursk region on the border with Ukraine, its governor said, adding that the falling debris was an oil pipeline and a house.
“Debris fell in the village of Tolmachevo. No one was injured,” regional governor Roman Starovoyt told the Telegram messaging app.
Sky News could not immediately verify the report.
While Ukraine almost never publicly claims the duty of attacks inside Russia and into Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine, Kiev recently said it undermines Moscow’s logistical component to prepare for a planned counteroffensive.
Here’s a summary of yesterday’s most sensible news:
The White House has announced a new $1. 2 billion military aid package for Ukraine, plus air defense systems and artillery shells.
In this package, Ukraine will get more air defense systems and munitions as a generation to integrate Western launchers, missiles and air defense radars with Ukraine’s local defense systems.
The budget will be used to pay for 155mm howitzer munitions, anti-drone munitions, satellite imagery and types of training, the Pentagon said.
Spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at a briefing that the weaponry would protect Ukraine’s territory and “deter Russian aggression in the long run. “
The delivery of weapons and systems in their availability and production schedule.
A video journalist from the AFP news firm killed today in Ukraine.
Arman Soldin, who was the video coordinator for Ukrainian media, was killed by rocket fire near Shasiv Yar in the Donetsk region, bloodhounds who witnessed the incident told AFP.
The attack occurred on the outskirts of the city near Bakhmut.
In April, the International Federation of Journalists reported that at least 12 bloodhounds and media personnel had been killed in Ukraine since the invasion began and 18 wounded.
Vladimir Putin will use the Victory Day parade in Moscow to showcase Russia’s continued influence in Central Asia, the Institute for War Studies (ISW) reports.
Earlier in the day, the leaders of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Belarus and Turkmenistan attended the Victory Day parade in Moscow.
The U. S. think tank The U. S. government notes that no foreign leaders attended Moscow’s Victory Day in 2022 and that this year’s parade was an attempt to showcase Russia’s influence in Central Asia.
However, he added that the belated announcement of the presence of Central Asian leaders “probably indicates their reluctance to come out directly and publicly in favor of war despite the Kremlin’s efforts to allocate power. “
During his Victory Day speech in Moscow today, Vladimir Putin introduced his same old rhetoric, blaming the war in Ukraine on the West’s “indomitable ambitions, arrogance and impunity. “
He also said that civilization was back at a turning point and that a “real war” had been unleashed against Russia.
Since Russia invaded its neighbor more than 14 months ago, Putin has portrayed the war in Ukraine as an indirect clash with the West.
Here, our International Affairs Editor, Dominic Waghorn, defeats the Russian president’s speech on a day of small-scale victory. . .
Ukrainian troops hold their positions near the town of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region.
The war along the flank has been the bloodiest of the war so far, with Russian troops intent on capturing the entire area.
Earlier in the day, a British-led organization of European countries requested expressions of interest to supply Ukraine with missiles with a diversity of up to 300 km in what would be a further intensification of the army in Kiev against the Russian invasion.
Eyewitness of Diana Magnay, correspondent in Moscow
Russia’s Victory Day parades see crowds of other people on the city’s main streets, cheering on passing tanks, armored cars and S-400 anti-aircraft systems and, a spectator favorite, the fearsome YARS intercontinental ballistic missile capable of delivering a doomsday nuclear bomb. payload worldwide.
The flyover is the highlight, with the last flower still the Russian tricolor flag dragged in the sky.
But it is not a General Victory Day. The public is not allowed to practice it. This time, the only genuine viewing perspective if you were internal to Red Square and it’s only through an invitation.
Normally, foreign media are also accredited to film there, but this year.
Muscovites can simply watch the parade as it left Red Square, but there weren’t many to talk about: just more than 50 pieces of military equipment, the only tank on display, the historic T-34 “Victory Tank” from World War II. The entire car ride took only five minutes, and the air show was canceled long before Victory Day.
The viewers we met, once they finally found a viewpoint, were positive with the reduced program.
“This makes sense because many cars are in Ukraine,” Artyom told us.
This is the tone of Russian nationalist telegram channels.
“I will have to confess that I was afraid that tanks and armored personnel carriers, so obligatory in the war zone, would cross Red Square,” wrote well-known army correspondent Alexander Kots.
“But this year they did it tactfully. “
It is true that it is the ultimate patriots who take the trouble to get up in the morning to see what they can of the Victory Day parade, but the atmosphere we encountered was clearly bitter with regard to the foreign media.
“You are just propaganda”, “you to say horrible things about our president” and “tell the truth”, were just some of the comments that were directed at us. We hear it more and more.
It is the older generations who do not care about his frankness. That’s because many other people have embraced the Kremlin’s wholesale narrative.
“They are all things of the United States and Ukraine,” Andrei said of Rostov, holding the dog.
“Our grandparents finished them better, in 1945, so that it doesn’t happen now. “
Young Russians tend to be more cautious. Many refuse to speak. One couple told us that if they did, they would be expelled from their university.
Another said she felt militarism had no place in the twenty-first century, given the war in Ukraine and other horrible things.
I asked him if he was afraid to call it war. ” It’s not legal yet, that’s the call of what’s going on,” he replied.
Artyom indexed the 3 assassination attempts that have noticed and killed nationalist figures since the death of journalist and activist Daria Dugina last summer.
There was another car bomb this weekend in which the well-known editor Zakhar Prilepin was attacked, it was his partner in the car who died.
Artyom was angry that Ukraine and its Western allies were not bothered by the attacks.
When I advised him that this could simply be due to the scale and frequency of Russian missile and UAV movements over Ukrainian targets, he said that the Ukrainians were also bombing Russian cities, in places like Belgorod.
“It’s not the same scale, right?” Asked.
“If they could do it on the same scale, they would,” he replies.