This year Moscow’s Red Square will not be filled with tanks. The decision comes as Moscow faces military pressure, economic vulnerabilities and public criticism over internet outages and security problems.
The May 9 Victory Day parade on Moscow’s Red Square is the main event for Russian President Vladimir Putin: every year, Russia puts on a display of military power that showcases the country’s military power, including its state-of-the-art missiles and tanks.
This year, however, the parade promises to be a more discreet event.
Late on Tuesday, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that the parade will feature a column of troops from the military academies and armed forces marching on foot. But in a break with recent precedent, the ministry said no military equipment will pass Lenin’s tomb this year.
“Due to the current operational situation, students from the Suvorov Military Schools and the Nakhimov Naval Schools, as well as the cadet corps, and a column of military equipment will not participate in this year’s military parade,” the statement read.
It doesn’t take great Kremlinology to understand what the “current operational situation” means here. The Russian army appears to be in Ukraine, contrary to Moscow’s claims; Ukrainian attacks are inflicting significant damage on Russians; and have previously disrupted life in the Russian capital.
Asked on Wednesday about plans for the parade, and whether the equipment was needed for the front line, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov gave a slightly different interpretation of the situation, saying Moscow faced a “terrorist threat” from Kiev.
Russian military personnel march in columns on Victory Day in Moscow, May 9, 2025. (Getty Images)
“We are talking about the operational situation,” he said. “The Kiev regime, which is losing ground on the battlefield every day, has now launched a large-scale terrorist attack. And so, in the face of this terrorist threat, of course, all measures are being taken to minimize the danger. The parade will take place, but let’s not forget that last year it was an anniversary parade. A large-scale parade, the kind that should take place on a significant date. This date is not an anniversary, but the parade will still take place, albeit in a reduced format.”
Russia has scaled back the Victory Day parade in the years since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. In 2022 and 2023, the traditional flyover by military aircraft was cancelled; the 2024 parade, a World War II-era T-34.
But as Peskov pointed out, last year’s Victory Day parade, which marked the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany, was a . Putin presided over a parade that featured equipment including the Geran-2, Russia’s version of the Iranian Shahed drone, and welcomed allied leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The Russian Defense Ministry has declared that next month’s parade will feature a traditional highlight: aerobatic teams will fly over Red Square, with Su-25 ground attack planes painting the Russian tricolor in the Moscow sky. But the scaled-down parade comes at a turning point for Putin.
In recent weeks, discontent has been rising to the surface in Russia following a crisis that has made life inconvenient in the Russian capital and elsewhere. The internet outages – which Russian authorities say were necessary for security reasons – have provoked the country’s leadership.
on Russia’s Black Sea coast, also showed Moscow’s economic vulnerability. Images of the ongoing environmental disaster also highlighted what some saw as a slow response from authorities.
Other economic alarm bells are sounding for the Kremlin. On Tuesday, Elvira Nabiullina, governor of Russia’s Central Bank, said the country was facing an unprecedented labor shortage.
“Never before in the history of modern Russia have we faced such a labor shortage,” he said, according to Russian state agency RIA Novosti. “We’ve never had anything like this, and this is impacting the entire economic situation.”
Russia’s labor shortage is not surprising. The country has seen a wave of emigration – and a serious brain drain – after one announced in September 2022. And Russia has struggled in the face of terrible casualties on the Ukrainian front line.
In 2008, Putin explained why Russia was bringing the spectacle of tanks and missiles back to Red Square, in the first major weapons demonstration since the Soviet collapse.
“This is not saber rattling: we are not threatening anyone, we do not intend to do so, we are not imposing anything on anyone – we have everything in abundance,” he said. “This is a demonstration of our growing defense capabilities. We are capable of protecting our people, our citizens, our State and our wealth.”
Whether the Russian army is capable of protecting the capital in the context of a prolonged and bloody war with Ukraine now appears to be an open question.
