Victory Day events held in Russia-occupied regions of Ukraine

Celebratory events marking the 77th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s Victory in the Second World War were held in several Ukrainian cities currently occupied by the Russian army.

In Mariupol, a 1,000-foot-long ribbon of St. George was carried around the city in a ceremony led by head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk “people’s republic” Denis Pushilin. Govorit Moskva news outlet claims that this is the longest ribbon of St. George in the world.

An Eternal Flame was also lit in Mariupol in a ceremony attended by Pushilin and Russia’s Young Army Cadets National Movement.

Celebratory events were also held in the occupied Kherson region of Ukraine. An Immortal Regiment march with people holding portraits of relatives who took part in WWII was held in Kherson. In Nova Kakhovka, people took to the streets carrying the “Victory Banner” (a red flag with the hammer and sickle) and Russian flags, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reports. The army also set up a field kitchen in the centre of Kherson.

State news agency TASS reports that officers of Russia’s National Guard also took part in Victory Day events. The National Guard’s press service told the agency that “song and dance groups of the Southern and North Caucasus District of the National Guard troops performed military songs in Kherson, Skadovsk, Henichesk, Nova Kakhovka, Melitopol and Berdyansk.”

URA.RU news outlet published a video from Ukraine’s Enerhodar, where Moscow’s Red Square military parade was transmitted in the city’s central square.

A Victory Day parade timed to the 77th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory in the Second World War was held in Moscow’s Red Square. The airborne part of the parade was cancelled due to weather conditions. No foreign leaders were invited to attend the event.

In his speech at the parade, Vladimir Putin stated that right now, “the Donbass militia, together with the soldiers of the Army of Russia, are fighting on their land, for the motherland, for its future, to make sure that no one forgets the lessons of the Second World War.”