• Russian leader chides Nato for backing Ukraine
• North Korean troops debut in parade on Red Square
• Internet outages cast shadow over event

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that he thought the Ukraine conflict was coming to an end.

“I think that the matter is coming to an end,” Putin told reporters about the Ukraine war.

Putin was speaking in the Kremlin after Russia held its most scaled-back Victory Day parade in years. The May 9 national holiday celebrates the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two and pays homage to the 27 million Soviet citizens who perished in the war.

The Financial Times reported on Thursday that European Union leaders were preparing for potential talks.

Asked if he was willing to engage in talks with the Europeans, he said the preferable figure for him was Germany’s former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

“For me personally, the former chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Mr. Schroeder, is preferable,” Putin said.

The Kremlin said last week that it was for European governments to make the first move, as they were the ones who severed contact with Moscow in 2022 after the start of the war in Ukraine.

When asked about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Putin said a meeting was possible only once a lasting peace deal was agreed.

The Russian leader said that his soldiers in Ukraine were fighting an “aggressive force” backed by all of Nato and described his war goals as “just”.

In his address to the parade, attended by Russian military units as well as soldiers from North Korea, Putin invoked the Soviet victory to rally support for his army in Ukraine.

“The great feat of the generation of victors inspires the soldiers carrying out the goals of the special military operation today,” Putin said. “They are confronting an aggressive force armed and supported by the entire Nato bloc. And despite this, our heroes move forward,” he said. “I firmly believe that our cause is just,” he added later.

Putin has made the memory of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II a central narrative of his 25-year rule. Russian authorities typically mark the parade with pomp and grandeur. But a spate of Ukrainian long-range attacks in recent weeks prompted the Kremlin to ramp up security measures and downsize this year’s celebrations.

Security tightened

Security measures were tightened, with threats of Ukrainian drones used to justify the paring back of this year’s parade.

The speech drew a cool reception from some in Moscow, with internet outages and fatigue over the four-year Ukraine war casting a shadow over the events. Security was tight in the capital before the parade, with reporters seeing empty streets. Mobile internet was also disrupted.

Only the leaders of Belarus, Malaysia, Laos, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan were listed as attending, in contrast to high-profile visitors including China’s Xi Jinping during last year’s event.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2026