Rallying the Troops : Rewiring History

"[Soviet soldiers fought the Nazis] at Kyiv, Minsk, Sevastopol and Kharkiv -- just as today you are fighting for our people in Donbas, for the safety of our Mother Russia."

"[The West] armed Ukraine, which was preparing for a] neo-Nazi [attack on the Donbas, even might have developed a nuclear bomb, creating an] absolutely unacceptable threat to our security, right on our borders."

"The threat was growing day by day. It [Russia's invasion] was the correct, timely, and absolutely only possible decision."

Russian President Vladimir Putin, May 9, Moscow, Victory Day

Russian President Vladimir Putin watches a military parade on Victory Day, which marks the 77th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, in Red Square in central Moscow, Russia May 9, 2022. Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Pool via REUTERS

"On the Day of Victory over Nazism, we are fighting for a new victory. The road to it is difficult, but we have no doubt that we will win."

"There are no shackles that can bind our free spirit. There is no occupier who can take root in our free land. There is no invader who can rule over our free people. Sooner or later we win."

"We are proud of our ancestors who, together with other nations in the anti-Hitler coalition, defeated Nazism. And we will not allow anyone to annex this victory, we will not allow it to be appropriated."

"The one who is repeating the horrific crimes of Hitler's regime today [Vladimir Putin], following Nazi philosophy, copying everything they did. He is doomed."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave a powerful speech on Sunday (8 May) delivering his speech in the ruins of an apartment block in Borodyanka, a suburb of Kyiv which has been devastated by Russian shelling over the last few weeks. Still from video

"The military operations of the Ukrainian armed forces around Kharkiv, especially north and northeast of Kharkiv, are sort of a success story."

"The Ukrainian army was able to push these war criminals to a line beyond the reach of their artillery."

Yuriy Saks, an adviser to Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov

There was Vladimir Putin, smug and victorious, praising his troops, admiring the display of Russian military hardware telegraphing power and might, and there were the troops, smiling, resolute, brimming with pride as a well-armed military with a finely choreographed display of solidarity and courage, ready and willing to obey the orders of their president for love of their nation. Russia's annual celebration of countering the Nazi invasion of World War Two went as scheduled, but not quite as Western sources visualized.

No declaration of war emanated from the central Moscow historic Red Square spectacle. An unpopular move by a government that has polarized some elements of the population by attacking a neighbour with whom the population on each side has had deep historical bonds. The veneer of neo-Nazi slander imposed on Ukraine by their president has failed to convince those in Russia who have family and friends in Ukraine; above all the huge Ukrainian-Russian demographic living in Russia. Conscription, accompanying a declaration of war, would be a risky move for a nation that has already suffered grievous casualty numbers.

Russia, declaimed their president, always stood for peace and the determination to prevent a repetition of the ghastly horror of the Second World War. A war which the Soviet Union agreed, with fascist Germany, would and should be launched. It only became horrible for the Soviets when Germany decided it could proceed with other Axis members, absent the presence of the Soviet military, when it turned its own military might on Russia. And Russia responded mightily. Only that response was significant enough to recall; that Russia was part of the Axis that brought Europe-wide conflict an unmentionable irrelevance.

Russian service members march during a parade on Victory Day, which marks the 77th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, in Red Square in central Moscow, Russia May 9, 2022. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina

Russians were enjoined by their president to be justifiably proud of themselves for supporting a decision made by him to destroy their neighbour. A neighbour that had chosen to move itself to the fascist sphere by emulating Germany with its ignoble direction toward embracing fascism and denying their heritage as Slavic brothers to Russia, sharing the same Communist ideal. To abandon communism is to become fascist, supported by Western interests immersed in an evil plot to destroy Russia.

As its counterweight to Russia's Victory Day memorial, Ukraine's own president, in a presentation video invoked over 30 years of independence from Russia, while the Ukrainian leader spoke of the Russian failure to learn the lessons taught by the Second World War. Volodymyr Zelenskyy in casual military garb, shirt sleeves rolled, strode down Khreshchatyk, the main central Kyiv thoroughfare destroyed by retreating Soviet forces in 1941 and rebuilt in the brutalist Stalinist architecture.

His video performance stood in contrast to the elaborate pomp and ceremony of Red Square's Victory Day extravaganza; a simple message delivered to Ukrainians assuring them that theirs is the right to existence as a free nation, and the shackles of dictatorship would never shake the confidence of their government defying an enemy determined to destroy their culture and their nation. Ukraine's Victory Day memorial includes a Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation, May 8.

Now, even the gains that Russia had orchestrated and celebrated in the early days of their February 24 invasion, are slipping away. The Ukrainian military is on the offensive and pushing back the mighty Russian Army to retake territory close to the border with Russia:

"They’re [Ukrainian military] trying to cut in and behind the Russians to cut off the supply lines, because that’s really one of their [the Russians’] main weaknesses."

"Ukrainians are getting close to the Russian border. So all the gains that the Russians made in the early days in the northeast of Ukraine are increasingly slipping away."

Neil Melvin, RUSI think-tank, London

First responders work at the site of a missile strike, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Odesa, Ukraine in this handout image released May 10, 2022. State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout via REUTERS