Putin’s ‘grotesque fictions’ exposed on much-changed Victory Day which shows invasion is no sequel to 1945 triumph
It has been said the only glue that holds Russia together is the memory of its great victory over Nazi Germany.
The country is vast and diverse. There is no ideology, no ‘ism’ to believe in any longer. No rule of law, no system of government beyond gangster kleptocracy, no Stalin or Lenin or any other great leader the nation can rally behind.
But Russians can unite in their memory of that great triumph over Germany and the huge sacrifices it cost – losses most families can to this day remember personally.
That helps explain why throughout his rule Vladimir Putin has made so much of the victory.
In the absence of any other good storyline, he has retold the same old one over and over again.
And he has presented his war in Ukraine as a sequel to what they call the Great Patriotic War.
Hence the absurd claims Ukraine is run by Nazis when it is in fact led by a Jew who lost most of his family to the same Nazis who killed more than 26 million Soviets.
Russian propagandists peddle the same grotesque fiction.
They claim Russia saved the world alone in the Second World War and make no mention of the extraordinary sacrifices and feats of arms made by the Allies, not to mention the huge amount of Allied weaponry and support without which Russia would not have prevailed against the Nazis.
In fact, they even claim that Britain and America created the Nazis and in essence, Russia was fighting the West then, as it was against Napoleon, and is again now.
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Putin delivers speech in Moscow
If you control the information space as well as the Putin regime does there is no end to the nonsense you can spout and probably end up believing.
But it shows the deep well of paranoia that exists in Russia, not least thanks to geography and history.
In February Putin presented the special military operation in Ukraine, as he calls it, as something Russians were going to have to learn to live with.
He tried to normalise it as something that would be going on in the background indefinitely.
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A scaled-down Victory Day
But his war is going badly – so badly it is even affecting Victory Day.
As our correspondent in Moscow reports, today’s event is being scaled down.
No flypast, not so many tanks and there will be fewer people watching.
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Russia holds Victory Day parade
Hundreds of thousands have fled the country and many of those men that remain daren’t go out, terrified of being drafted.
And the Immortal Regiment parades, when Russians march with photos of the great fallen of the Second World War, have been banned, lest they do the same with images of the tens of thousands who have died in Ukraine.
Many Russians will continue to believe the propaganda, and support their government alarmed by mysterious assassinations, drone attacks and assorted fictions peddled on state TV.
But they will also increasingly know the war is not going well.
If you sell a war as a sequel to Russia’s most glorious, then you are begging the question, where is the victory? And never more so than today.
This is the highest stakes diplomacy via social media.
The American president just posted on his Truth Social platform: “We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding.
“He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now. But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers.
“Our patience is wearing thin. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Israel-Iran live: Trump says US knows where Iran’s supreme leader is ‘hiding’
It was followed minutes later by “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”
In real-time, we are witnessing Donald Trump’s extreme version of maximum pressure diplomacy.
He’d probably call it the ‘art of the deal’, but bunker busters are the tool, and it comes with such huge consequences, intended and unintended, known and unknown.
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The bunker buster bomb which could destroy Iran’s nuclear ambitions
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Nuclear sites targeted in Iran
There is intentional ambiguity in the president’s messaging. His assumption is that he can apply his ‘art of the deal’ strategy to a deeply ideological geopolitical challenge.
It’s all playing out publicly. Overnight, the New York Times, via two of its best-sourced reporters, had been told that Mr Trump is weighing whether to use B-2 aircraft to drop bunker-busting bombs on Iran’s underground nuclear facilities.
Meanwhile, Axios was reporting that a meeting is possible between Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi.
The reporting came just as Mr Trump warned “everyone in Tehran to evacuate”. The nuclear sites being threatened with bunker busters are not in Tehran, but Trump’s words are designed to stoke tension, to confuse and to apply intense pressure.
His actions are too. He left the G7 in Canada early and asked his teams to gather in the White House Situation Room.
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Trump: ‘I want an end, not a ceasefire’
This is a game of smoke, mirrors, brinkmanship and – maybe – bluff. In Tehran, what’s left of the leadership is watching and reading closely as they consider what’s next.
Maybe the Supreme Leader and his regime’s days are numbered. Things remain very unpredictable.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
From history, though, regime change, even when it comes with a plan – and there is certainly not one here, spells civil war and from that comes a refugee crisis.
These are truly tense and chaotic times.
World
Ukraine war: 14 killed as Russian missile and drone attacks strike Kyiv – including American citizen
Russian missile and drone attacks have killed 14 people in Kyiv overnight, according to Ukrainian officials.
A 62-year-old US citizen who suffered shrapnel wounds is among the dead.
At least 99 others were wounded in strikes that hollowed out a residential building and destroyed dozens of apartments.
Pic: AP
Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble.
Images show a firefighter was among those hurt, with injured residents evacuated from their homes.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack as “one of the most terrifying attacks on Kyiv” – and said Russian forces had fired 440 drones and 32 missiles as civilians slept in their homes.
“[Putin] wants the war to go on,” he said. “It is troubling when the powerful of this world turn a blind eye to it.”
Pic: AP
Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said 27 locations across the capital have been hit – including educational institutions and critical infrastructure.
He claimed the attack, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, was one of the largest on the capital since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
Drones swarmed over the city, with an air raid alert remaining in force for seven hours.
One person was killed and 17 others injured as a result of separate Russian drone strikes in the port city of Odesa.
Pic: Reuters
It comes as the G7 summit in Canada continues, which Ukraine’s leader is expected to attend.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold talks with Donald Trump – but the president has announced he is unexpectedly returning to Washington because of tensions in the Middle East.
Ukraine’s foreign minister says Moscow’s decision to attack Kyiv during the summit is a signal of disrespect to the US.
Moscow has launched a record number of drones and missiles in recent weeks, and says the attacks are in retaliation for a Ukrainian operation that targeted warplanes in airbases deep within Russian territory.
Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko says fires broke out in two of the city’s districts as a result of debris from drones shot down by the nation’s air defences.
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Pic: AP
On X, Ukraine’s foreign ministry wrote: “Russia’s campaign of terror against civilians continues. Its war against Ukraine escalates with increased brutality.
“The only way to stop Russia is tighter pressure – through sanctions, more defence support for Ukraine, and limiting Russia’s ability to keep sowing war.”
Olena Lapyshnak, who lived in one of the destroyed buildings, said: “It’s horrible, it’s scary, in one moment there is no life. I can only curse the Russians, that’s all I can say. They shouldn’t exist in this world.”
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