The UK Defense Ministry says in its latest intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine that Russia’s cancellation of VE-Day parades in regions bordering Ukraine and occupied Crimea highlights a sensitive communication challenge as “honouring the fallen of previous generations could easily blur into exposing the scope of the recent losses, which the Kremlin attempts to cover up.”
The ministry wrote:
- “Leaders of several Russian regions bordering Ukraine, as well as occupied Crimea, have announced that their usually high-profile 9 May Victory Day military parades will be cancelled.”
- “Some Russian cities further away from Ukraine have confirmed they plan to go ahead with Victory Day. The cancelled events have likely primarily been called off because of security concerns near the border, as officials have claimed.”
- “However, the different approaches highlight a sensitive communications challenge for the Kremlin. Putin couches the ‘special military operation’ in the spirit of the Soviet experience in World War Two. The message risks sitting increasingly uneasily with the many Russians who have immediate insights into the mismanaged and failing campaign in Ukraine. Honouring the fallen of previous generations could easily blur into exposing the scope of the recent losses, which the Kremlin attempts to cover up.”
Read also:
- Putin’s victory parade & Crimea land grab are a throwback to Stalinist times: Vitaly Portnikov (2020)
- Parades and propaganda: how Russia erases the Ukrainian identity of kids in occupied Crimea
- Putin’s Victory Parade – a horrific Orwellian exercise, Khots says (2017)
- Putin’s failure to attract CIS leaders to Victory parade marks shift from post-Soviet era to Russian world, Dubnov says (2017)
- Moscow’s Victory cult intended to keep non-Russians within an empire and former Soviet republics together, Ukrainian commentator says (2016)
- Commemoration and history: Russia’s uncomfortable truths (2015)
