Vladimir Putin justified Russia’s military actions, saying they were “disclaimer”.
London:
Britain’s defense minister spoke of the “absurdity” of Russia’s top military top officials at the annual Victory Day parade in Moscow on Monday, highlighted by a speech by President Vladimir Putin.
Putin addressed a massive parade on Red Square in Moscow for a public holiday to celebrate the Soviet victory in World War II, as the Russian armed forces in Ukraine suffered major losses.
Britain’s Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, himself a former soldier, was due to deliver a speech at the National Army Museum on Monday.
“All professional soldiers should be amazed at the behavior of the Russian military,” he would say, according to excerpts released by his department in advance.
“Not only are they indulging in an illegal invasion and war crimes, but their top officials have failed their own rank and file to the extent that they should be court martialed.”
Putin, in a speech to soldiers on Monday, said they were protecting the “homeland” in Ukraine.
He justified Russia’s military actions by saying they were “condemning” the neighboring country.
Wallace said he wanted to “call out the absurdity of Russian generals—resplendent in their manicured parade uniforms and weighed down by their many medals”, adding that they were “completely in abduction of Putin’s proud history of his ancestors”. The participants were … expelling fascism “.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke of his pride in the Ukrainians who fought to defeat Nazism, saying he would not allow the victory in World War II to be “appropriated” by the Russians.
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