Putin says Russia defending ‘Motherland’

Kyiv, Ukraine: President Vladimir Putin defended Russia’s war in Ukraine as necessary to protect the "Motherland" as Moscow flexed its military muscle on Monday at a huge parade marking the 1945 victory over Nazi Germany.

Fierce battles raged in eastern Ukraine while Putin made his Victory Day speech against a backdrop of intercontinental ballistic missiles rumbling through Red Square. The Russian leader made no major announcements on Russia’s next steps but channelled Russian pride in its World War II triumph to mobilise support for the Ukraine invasion, now in its third month.

In a sign of international opposition to the war, protesters splattered Russia’s ambassador to Poland with red liquid when he tried to lay a wreath in Warsaw to mark Victory Day. The conflict is mired in the history between ex-Soviet neighbours Ukraine and Russia, with Putin saying the so-called "special military operation" in Ukraine is in part to "de-Nazify" the country.

Putin blamed the West and Ukraine for today’s conflict, telling the parade that Russia faced an "absolutely unacceptable threat" and warning against the "horror of a global war". "You are fighting for the Motherland, for its future, so that no-one forgets the lessons of the Second World War," he said.

The celebration in Red Square also featured some 11,000 troops and more than 130 military vehicles, although a planned military flypast was cancelled. On the ground, the key battles are being fought in Ukraine’s east, which Russia is seeking to secure having tried and failed to take the capital Kyiv and the north.

The governor of eastern Lugansk region, Sergiy Gaiday, said on Monday there were "very serious battles" around Bilogorivka and Rubizhne, as Russia tries to take the Russian-speaking Donbas. Donbas encompasses Lugansk and the neighbouring region of Donetsk.

An AFP team saw columns of trucks filled with soldiers and heavy equipment move down the main road leading away from the city of Severodonetsk, suggesting Ukraine was giving up the defence of its last stronghold in Lugansk.

Russian forces were heavily shelling the roads, while the Ukrainians were firing back to help cover the apparent pullout. Officials said 60 civilians were killed in a Russian air strike on a school in the eastern village of Bilogorivka on Sunday -- one of the highest single death tolls since the February 24 invasion.

Meanwhile, European Council President Charles Michel said Russia would fail to "execute" Ukraine’s "freedom" on a surprise trip to Odessa on Monday during which he was forced to take cover when missiles again truck the Black Sea city. "The Kremlin wants to execute your spirit of freedom and democracy," Michel said in a video on Twitter.