May 9 in Putin’s Russia has long ceased to be a day of remembrance.
It’s no longer about the people who fought against Nazism. Not about the families who lost loved ones. Not about the millions who died, not about the cost of war, not about silence at graves, and not about understanding why such a catastrophe should not be repeated.
A day that the Putin regime has turned into a tool of propaganda, a cult of power, and the promotion of the ‘Russian world’ for decades. A day when the memory of World War II was seized by those who themselves unleashed a new war in Europe.
And so on May 9, 2026, Moscow received an almost perfect illustration of its own downfall: the parade on Red Square took place without military equipment, lasting only about 45 minutes, with North Korean soldiers in the ranks, mobile internet disruptions, and hysteria from Russian propagandists following a decree by Volodymyr Zelensky, who ‘allowed’ Russia to hold this parade.
Kyiv in three days, they said.
Well, yes.
Now Kyiv indicates the coordinates of Red Square and temporarily excludes them from the plans for the use of Ukrainian weapons.
How May 9 became a tool of the ‘Russian world’
Soviet and post-Soviet propaganda has been instilling a simple and convenient scheme in people’s minds for years: the victory over Nazism was allegedly almost exclusively a victory of the ‘Soviet people,’ and in the Russian version — almost a personal legacy of Moscow.
This was a deliberate substitution.
The day of the surrender of Nazi Germany in Europe is celebrated on May 8. This is how the memory of victory and the end of the war is perceived by most European countries. Ukraine has completely abandoned the Soviet format of ‘Victory Day’ and, together with Europe, honors May 8 as the Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in World War II.
And this is a fundamentally different meaning.
Not ‘we can repeat.’
Not tanks on the square.
Not ribbons, militaristic slogans, and collective frenzy.
But memory, mourning, human losses, and understanding the terrible cost of war.
Ukraine lost millions of people in World War II. Ukrainian lands became one of the main theaters of military operations in Europe. Therefore, for Ukrainians, this date cannot be a carnival of imperial pride.
The symbol of memory became the red poppy — a sign of the tragedy of war and responsibility for the future.
Today, this meaning sounds even more painful because Ukraine is once again fighting against aggression, totalitarian violence, and a new evil, which is increasingly called rashism.
Why the Russian cult of May 9 became a moral substitution
The feat of those people who truly fought against Nazism can only live in the memory of families, in honest history, and in the minds of thinking people.
But Putin’s Russia did something else.
It took this feat and turned it into a political resource. Into a justification for new wars. Into a cult of power. Into a tool for training society, which has been told for decades: if necessary — we will repeat.
And they repeated.
Only not liberation, but attack.
Not the fight against Nazism, but the destruction of Ukrainian cities.
Not the protection of peace, but the mobilization of hatred.
Therefore, today’s May 9 in Moscow is not a day of victory. It is a day of enslavement of memory. A day when the state, inheriting the NKVD, the Gulag, deportations, and imperial violence, tries to hide behind the names of those who fought against Hitler.
And the louder Russia shouts about ‘victory,’ the clearer it becomes that it has stolen it from the dead.
Parade of shame: without equipment, but with North Korean soldiers
The May 9, 2026 parade on Red Square became one of the most indicative in recent years. According to media reports, for the first time since 2007, it took place without military equipment.
The Ministry of Defense of the aggressor country explained the absence of equipment by the ‘current operational situation.’
A very convenient formulation.
In the language of reality, it sounds simpler: equipment is needed in war, equipment burns, equipment is vulnerable, and the center of Moscow no longer feels like a safe stage for an imperial spectacle.
The parade lasted only about 45 minutes. According to media reports, cadets from Suvorov and Nakhimov schools did not participate. However, for the first time, North Korean soldiers who fought in the Kursk region officially marched in a separate column.
The picture turned out to be almost symbolic: Russia, which has been talking about its own ‘great power’ for decades, now brings North Korean military to Red Square.
Not equipment.
Not power.
Not confidence.
But imported dictatorship in line with the local dictatorship.
Who came to Putin
The list of foreign guests also spoke for itself.
Belarusian ally Alexander Lukashenko, leaders of Laos and Malaysia, as well as representatives of the unrecognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia came to Putin. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico also arrived in Moscow, although he stated that he would not attend the parade itself.
At the last moment, according to reports, the heads of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev arrived in the Russian capital.
For a regime that dreams of looking like the center of an alternative world, this is a weak scene. A lot of pomp, little real power.
And separately — mobile internet disruptions in Moscow. Residents complained that banking apps, messengers, websites, SMS, and even some services from the so-called ‘white list’ were not opening. There were also reports of problems with television.
That is, Moscow was given a victory celebration in such a way that its own citizens had to live in a mode of digital blackout.
Parade of security?
Rather a parade of fear.
Zelensky’s decree and the hysteria of Russian propagandists
The most painful blow to May 9 in Moscow was not even the empty square without equipment.
The main informational event was the decree of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky No. 374/2026, signed on May 8. It stated the ‘permission’ for Russia to hold the May 9 parade on Red Square for humanitarian purposes, after negotiations with the American side.
The document stated that during the parade — from 10 a.m. Kyiv time — the territorial square of Red Square is excluded from the plan for the use of Ukrainian weapons. The coordinates of this square were also published there.
And then the Russian war correspondents burst.
Some called it ‘demonstrative humiliation.’ Others — ‘an informational special operation.’ Still others saw in the coordinates ‘targeting under the guise of a diplomatic gesture.’
Propaganda channels began to write that Kyiv allegedly showed: holding a parade in the capital of Russia now depends on Zelensky’s pen stroke and the accuracy of Ukrainian flight missions.
This is the main thing.
They understood it themselves.
They themselves said out loud what the Kremlin would like to hide: the sacred Red Square no longer looks inviolable. The main parade of the regime takes place not in an atmosphere of strength, but in an atmosphere of agreements, threats, negotiations, fear of Ukrainian capabilities, and nervous sky protection.
For readers of NANews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency this plot is especially understandable. Israeli society knows what a war of meanings, psychological pressure, symbolic dates, hostages, prisoners, truces, and enemy attempts to turn memory into a weapon are. Therefore, the Ukrainian strike on Russian May 9 was not only media trolling but also a precise operation to destroy the imperial myth.
Why Zelensky was not talking about the square, but about prisoners
It’s important not to lose the main point.
Behind the decree was not just irony. Zelensky explained: in recent days, there have been many appeals and signals about the ‘configuration’ of May 9 in Moscow against the backdrop of Ukrainian long-range sanctions. The principle of mirroring in Ukraine’s actions is well known to the Russian side.
But an additional argument for Kyiv was one of the key humanitarian issues of the war — the release of prisoners of war.
Zelensky said directly: Red Square is less important for Ukraine than the lives of Ukrainian prisoners who can be returned home.
As part of the negotiation process mediated by the United States, Ukraine received Russia’s consent to exchange prisoners of war in the format of 1000 for 1000. A ceasefire was also to be established on May 9, 10, and 11.
That is why the situation turned out to be doubly humiliating for Moscow.
On the one hand, Ukraine showed that it sees Red Square as an object of psychological significance.
On the other — said: today we do not strike at your symbol because we choose to return our people.
This is a very strong position.
Not weakness.
Not concession.
But control over the moment.
Why May 9 in Russia no longer works as before
Russian propagandists themselves admitted that Zelensky’s decree was discussed more actively than the preparation for the parade. This is the Kremlin’s defeat in the information field.
Instead of a monolithic picture of ‘great victory,’ the audience saw something completely different: a parade without equipment, North Korean soldiers, internet disruptions, nervous comments, Zakharova’s threats, Peskov’s irritation, and war correspondents’ fear of Ukrainian coordinates.
Putin’s spectacle was staged.
But the directorial commentary was written by Kyiv.
And this is the irony of 2026.
Ukraine, which was supposed to be erased, now destroys the main myth of Russian propaganda not only with missiles and drones but also with the text of an official decree. With one document, it showed that May 9 in Moscow no longer belongs only to Moscow.
This date has become a field of war of meanings, where Russia no longer dictates the rules.
The parade of shame on Red Square turned out not to be a celebration of strength, but a demonstration of dependence, fear, and the internal emptiness of the regime.
Without equipment.
With North Korea.
With outages.
With hysteria.
With the coordinates of Red Square in a Ukrainian document.
And with a very simple historical truth: the memory of victory over Nazism cannot belong to a state that itself conducts a war of aggression.
Therefore, May 9 in Putin’s Russia is no longer a day of victory.
It is a day when the regime tries to march on someone else’s memory — and hears more and more loudly how its own myth is cracking beneath it.