Russians are slamming Russian President Vladimir Putin for his bizarre speech at Russia’s Victory Day parade, the day Russia celebrates victory in World War II, as Russian forces continue their attacks in Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU).
According to allegedly intercepted phone calls between Russians that the SBU shared, the Russian people are particularly incensed by Putin’s celebration of Russian might, while prices of goods in Russia are soaring under the crush of sanctions the United States and other countries have imposed on Russia for the war in Ukraine.
“I don’t know what this parade is for? What the fuck do they need it for?” A mother of a Russian soldier said, according to tapped phone calls the SBU shared. “Everyone is not in the mood.”
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The Kremlin typically uses the parade as a way to show off Russian military hardware and prowess. But this year, the celebratory day is taking place under a cloud of death and devastation—Putin sent his military forces into Ukraine in February with the intent of taking Kyiv and capturing multiple cities, touting the event as a “special” military operation to his domestic audiences.
But instead of a swift victory, the Russians have failed miserably along the way, and have had to resort to cutting back on their ambitious goals and rerouting the war to eastern Ukraine. Russian troops have been dropping dead along the way, with casualties somewhere in the tens of thousands, by Ukrainian military estimates.
U.S. and Ukrainian officials warned last week that Putin was potentially looking to take advantage of the symbolic Victory Day to rally his troops. They warned that he was either preparing to mobilize more troops and officially declare war on Ukraine, or preparing to drastically escalate the fight in Ukraine in other ways.
But Putin gave his Victory Day speech without any such announcements, a move that shows Putin is at wit’s end and failing—something his citizenry is picking up on—according to senior American and British officials.
Putin “has recognized he has no victory to celebrate,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Monday, CNN reported. “He was not able to go into Ukraine and bring them to their knees in a few days and have them surrender.”
“Russia’s general staff are failing and they know it,” British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said in a speech Monday.
“Now the Russians do not have a parade of victory, but a parade of shame,” Ukraine’s SBU said in a statement.
The Russians on the intercepted call lamenting the parade, likewise, have been complaining that the parade is making them feel distressed and embarrassed.
“Basically, it's just bullshit,” the Russian mother said of the parade, according to the SBU. “It's all shameful... It hurts my soul.”
The Victory Day parade has for some time been a bit of a sham, military analysts note. Some of the weapons and equipment that the Kremlin have placed on display in Victory Day parades in previous years, while they may have seemed impressive, haven’t actually been useful for the Russian military.
Some of the weapons and equipment that the Russian government put on display in 2015—such as the Boomerang armed personnel carrier—for example, still aren’t in service, a full seven years later, according to Rob Lee, a Russian military analyst. And instead of the Victory Day parade serving as an emblem of Russian military capability, the parade has a better track record of demonstrating weakness and lack of coordination.
“None of those weapons are in service,” Lee told The Daily Beast. “It kind of begs the question of… all these very modern weapons that Russia is talking about—saying [the parade] is kind of a demonstration of Russia being a great power, of high technology—well, none of those are in service. Certainly it lends itself to questions about [when] will these be procured, are they procured? Are they actually as high-tech as they’ve been saying?”
Although Putin doesn’t have a victory to announce this week, he doesn’t have plans to end the war either, Thomas-Greenfield said. For now, he is reevaluating his position in Ukraine, according to the ambassador.
But Monday, Russian attacks continued unabated. A Russian missile hit and destroyed a hotel in Odessa, Ukrinform reported. During a Monday visit to Ukraine, European Council President Charles Michel had to take cover to avoid Russian missiles, AFP reported.
Russia’s fight ahead doesn’t necessarily hold a lot of promise for Putin, though, as his military’s resources are beginning to falter more than 70 days into the war. Russia’s stockpiles of precision-guided munitions are dwindling, according to a British intelligence analysis.
“[A]s the conflict continues beyond Russian pre-war expectations, Russia’s stockpile of precision-guided munitions has likely been heavily depleted,” the Ministry of Defense said Monday.
Replacing those munitions will be a difficult task and will force the Russian forces to use aging munitions that are less reliable and accurate.
