For the first time in nearly two decades, tanks and missiles will not rumble across Red Square on Victory Day.

The Russian Defence Ministry confirmed Wednesday that this year’s May 9 parade — commemorating the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany — will exclude military hardware and cadets, citing the “current operational situation.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was more direct, blaming what he called Ukrainian “terrorist activity” and adding that “all measures are being taken to minimise the danger.”

Victory Day is Russia’s most important secular holiday, a carefully orchestrated display of military prestige that President Vladimir Putin has spent over two decades building into a pillar of his rule. The parade has featured military equipment every year since 2008.

Now, that same military cannot guarantee the safety of its own showcase in the capital.

Ukraine has dramatically intensified long-range drone strikes deep inside Russian territory over recent months, hitting energy infrastructure hundreds of kilometres from the border. Just last year, more than 20 world leaders — including China’s Xi Jinping — watched 11,500 troops and 180 military vehicles parade past the Kremlin walls, including Yars nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles. This year, the dignitary roster is thinner.

Natia Seskuria, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, told the Associated Press the decision “signals a degree of vulnerability rather than strength, because even last year, Russia demonstrated a range of new tanks and drones in front of invited world leaders.”

A flyover and marching servicemen will proceed as planned. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak said last week that Ukraine has no intention of attacking the parade, noting that civilians would be present.

The tanks will sit this one out — not because of diplomatic caution, but because the country that built its identity around projecting military power can no longer guarantee the safety of a parade in its own capital.

Sources