Victory Day parade started in Russia on Monday with the attendance and the speech of President Vladimir Putin.
Addressing massed ranks of servicemen on Red Square on the 77th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany, he started his speech by congratulating veterans on the day of "great victory", adding that U.S. veterans were banned from attending the parade, adding that "Our duty is to keep the memory of those who defeated nazism."
Making remarks on the "special military operation" in Ukraine, he said that it was a needed and timely measure to be taken, emphasizing that it was the only right decision.
"Russia suggested signing a security treaty but the West did not want to hear us, they had other plans, they were planning for the invasion of our land," he said, adding that NATO was creating threats at Russian borders.
Referring to Ukraine, Putin said that "the collision with neo-Nazis was inevitable, Moscow's reaction was preventive," adding that Russia was facing an "absolutely unacceptable threat" in Ukraine.
He claimed that the "enemies" have tried to use terrorists against Russia.
Putin has also paid tribute to the Russian armed forces' deployment in Ukraine and said that the soldiers were fighting for the "fate of the motherland", Russia's security in the Donbass in eastern Ukraine and to protect the people there.
He directly addressed soldiers fighting in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine which Russia has pledged to "liberate" from Kyiv.
"Defending the Motherland when its fate is being decided has always been sacred," he said. "Today you are fighting for our people in Donbas, for the security of Russia, our homeland."
He also promised to help families of Russian soldiers that have died or were wounded in the conflict.
Putin's 11-minute speech on day 75 of the invasion offered no assessment of progress in the war and gave no indication of how long it might continue.
He has repeatedly likened the war - which he casts as a battle against dangerous "Nazi"-inspired nationalists in Ukraine - to the challenge the Soviet Union faced when Adolf Hitler invaded in 1941, about which Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said it is Russia that is staging a "bloody re-enactment of Nazism" in Ukraine.
Ending his speech, the Russian President said that everything must be done to avoid the "horror of global war".
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