"Our soldiers are defending our motherland in Ukraine," Vladamir Putin

Russia is celebrating its victory day; Russian President Vladimir Putin has spoken at the start of the annual military parade in Red Square, marking the Soviet defeat of the Nazis. Putin said the Russian troops in Ukraine were defending their homeland and portrayed the invasion of Ukraine as the continuation of World War II.

While addressing the Russian forces on the front in Ukraine, he said: "You are fighting for the Motherland, for its future, so that no one forgets the lesson of the Second World War."

He has also repeatedly tried to comment on the invasion of Ukraine as the Russians call a great Patriotic war by describing the authorities who manage Kyiv as "Neo-Nazis."

He made no major announcements during the speech, despite reports he could use the anniversary to announce an escalation of the conflict or a general mobilization in Russia.

Putin has insisted that the "special military operations in Kyiv and its Western allies had been preparing an invasion of our historical lands."

He has said that "an unacceptable threat to us was being created, directly on our borders," he pointed out to the NATO members helping Ukraine by supplying Weapons and even by deploying Foreign advisors.

He said that Russia had no choice but to take any action, which he called "the only right decision for a sovereign, strong and independent country."

He has said that "it is important to do everything so that the horror of a global war does not happen again." He has not said when the war will end, but he has acknowledged the "irreplaceable loss" of Russian soldiers who lost their lives in battle.