MOSCOW (AFP) – President Vladimir Putin yesterday vowed Russia would be victorious in Ukraine during a military parade on Red Square and blamed Western countries for the conflict, comparing the fighting to World War II.
But his defiant address was overshadowed by scathing comments from Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russian mercenary group Wagner, who accused Russia’s military of repeated failures in Ukraine.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to mark Europe Day that celebrates peace and unity, a symbolic retort to Moscow’s Victory Day parade.
During his address, Putin told columns of military personnel in ceremonial uniform in Moscow that the country’s future rests on Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine.
“Today civilisation is again at a decisive turning point,” Putin said standing shoulder to shoulder with elderly veterans and soldiers from Russia’s Ukraine campaign.
“A war has been unleashed against our motherland,” he said, adding that “the future of our statehood and our people depend on you”. “For Russia, for our armed forces, for victory! Hurrah!”
In remarks released at the same time as Putin’s speech, the head of Wagner accused a Russian unit of abandoning their positions near Bakhmut, the epicentre of the fighting in Ukraine. “They fled, exposing the front,” Prigozhin said, repeating a vow that his men would leave Bakhmut by May 10 if the Russian military does not supply more ammunition.
Wagner has been leading Russia’s months-long assault for Bakhmut, a destroyed industrial town in eastern Ukraine, where Russian forces have little to show after a winter offensive. “
Why is the state not able to defend its country?” Prigozhin said in a scathing video, in which he also accused Russian military top brass of trying to “deceive” Putin on how the Ukraine campaign was being led. In the streets of Moscow, Russian families had come out to view the parade, which had tightened security.
