Russia to hold Victory Parade without military equipment for first time in years

The Victory Day military parade is held in Moscow’s Red Square (Dmitri Lovetsky/AP)

Russia’s traditional parade marking the 81st anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Second World War this year will take place without tanks, missiles and other military equipment, the Russian defence ministry has said.

It will be the first time in nearly two decades — and in the more than four years of Russia’s war in Ukraine — that no military equipment will rumble through Moscow’s Red Square on May 9, the day Russia celebrates its most important secular holiday.

The Kremlin has used it to showcase its military might and global clout.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has turned Victory Day into a key pillar of his tenure (Dmitri Lovetsky/AP)

Victory Day parades on Red Square involved military equipment and various weaponry every year since 2008.

The ministry statement this week cited the “current operational situation” as a reason for excluding a military equipment convoy, as well as cadets, from the parade.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in a conference call with reporters on Wednesday blamed Ukraine and its “terrorist activity, in an apparent reference to Kyiv’s strikes deep inside Russia”.

“All measures are being taken to minimise the danger,” he said.

The parade will feature “servicemen from higher military educational institutions of all kinds and certain service branches of the Russian armed forces” and a traditional military aircraft flyover, the ministry said.

180 The number of military vehicles involved in last year's parade

The Second World War remains a rare point of consensus in the nation’s divisive history under communist rule, and the Kremlin has leveraged that sentiment to encourage national pride and underline Russia’s position as a global power.

The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in what it calls the Great Patriotic War between 1941-45, an enormous sacrifice that left a deep scar in the national psyche.

President Vladimir Putin, who has ruled Russia for more than 25 years, has turned Victory Day into a key pillar of his tenure and has tried to use it to justify the war in Ukraine.

Last year’s parade was the largest since Russia sent troops into Ukraine, and drew the most global leaders to Moscow in a decade, including high-profile guests such as Chinese President Xi Jinping, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico.

The Kremlin has used the parade to showcase its military might and global clout (Dmitri Lovetsky/AP)

It featured more than 11,500 troops and more than 180 military vehicles, including tanks, armoured infantry vehicles and artillery used on the battlefield in Ukraine, as well as huge Yars nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile launchers and drones carried on military trucks. Fighter jets flew over Red Square, too.

Mr Putin had declared a unilateral 72-hour ceasefire starting May 7 2025, and the authorities blocked mobile phone internet in Moscow for several days in an effort to avert Ukrainian drone attacks.

In 2023, the parade was scaled down, with fewer troops and military equipment on display and no flyover.