Victory Day celebrations in Sevastopol, Crimea, 9 May 2014. Photo: EPA/SERGEI ILNITSKY
The Russian-installed authorities in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol have cancelled a military parade scheduled for Russia’s Victory Day on 9 May over safety concerns for the third year in a row, state news agency TASS reported on Monday.
“There will be no Victory Day parade this year”, Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhaev said at a city government meeting, noting that the decision had been coordinated with Russia’s Defence Ministry.
While a “large number” of events were still planned to mark the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, Razvozhaev said, city authorities would not be publishing a full schedule of them “for obvious reasons”.
The Immortal Regiment procession, in which people across Russia march with photos of their ancestors who fought in World War II, would be held online for residents of Sevastopol, Razvozhaev said.
Sevastopol last held a Victory Day parade in 2022, shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with the event also cancelled in a number of other cities in 2023 over fears of Ukrainian drone strikes. For the past two years, all Immortal Regiment marches have been cancelled nationwide, with commemorative events instead held online.
Since illegally annexing Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, Russia is estimated to have established over 200 military facilities on the peninsula, many of which have been targeted by Ukrainian airstrikes.
The decision to cancel the Sevastopol parade comes just days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Kyiv could not guarantee the safety of foreign officials who travel to Moscow for Russia’s Victory Day parade on Friday.
“Our position is very simple for all countries planning to go or already heading to Russia on May 9: we cannot be held responsible for what happens on the territory of the Russian Federation”, Zelensky told reporters on Saturday.
“We don’t know what Russia will do on those dates”, the Ukrainian president said, warning that Russia may orchestrate provocations including “arson [and] explosions” and then attempt to blame Ukraine.
Some 20 foreign leaders are expected to travel to Moscow for the parade on 9 May, including Chinese President Xi Jinping and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
While only two European politicians — Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić — have said they plan to attend Russia’s Victory Day celebrations, both men have faced health issues in recent days, casting doubt over their appearances in Moscow on Friday.
