“Russia has announced a May 9 parade in Moscow without military equipment,” he told leaders attending the European Political Community Summit in Yerevan, Armenia. “They cannot afford military equipment — and they fear drones may buzz over Red Square.”
“This is telling,” Zelenskyy added. “It shows they are not strong now.”
It’s widely believed that the Kremlin’s decision to exclude military material from this week’s parade is due to the country’s defensive vulnerability four years into its invasion of Ukraine.
Kyiv regularly uses drones to inflict damage on key sites deep inside Russia, and only last week it struck oil infrastructure in the Black Sea port city of Tuapse for the third time in a month. On Monday, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin confirmed a Ukrainian drone had hit an elite residential building a mere six kilometers away from the Kremlin; no victims were reported.
Zelenskyy urged leaders at the Yerevan summit to keep pressuring Russia to choose diplomacy rather than further war. Russian President Vladimir Putin last week offered to declare a one-day truce with Ukraine on May 9, coinciding with the celebrations in Moscow. After Kyiv rejected the proposal, insisting a prolonged ceasefire is needed, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the decision was up to Putin alone.
Ahead of this weekend’s parade, the Kremlin is strengthening defenses in Moscow, bringing in additional air defense systems from outside the capital region. New restrictions are also being imposed on satellite internet and mobile connections, and Novaya Gazeta reports that even SMS services will be blocked between May 5 and 9.