Russia scales back Victory Day parade amid drone attack fears

No tanks were set to roll across Red Square for the first time in nearly 20 years, a stripped-down Victory Day parade that exposed how far Moscow’s security anxieties have reached into one of Vladimir Putin’s most carefully staged national rituals.

The parade on May 9, 2026, marked the 81st anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany, a day meant to honor the 27 million Soviet citizens who died in World War II and project military strength. Instead, soldiers were expected to march, fighter jets were expected overhead, and Putin was due to speak and lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The Defense Ministry said the hardware column and several military schools and cadet corps would not participate because of the “current operational situation.”

That operational situation was visible across Moscow before the parade even began. Russia cut off mobile internet service for many customers in the capital, and Reuters reporters found their phones had no internet access while calls still worked in many areas. Mobile operators warned customers of disruptions, and Sberbank and Yandex’s taxi unit said messaging and internet service could be affected. The shutdown turned a parade built around invulnerability into an event shadowed by the very vulnerability it was meant to deny.

Russian officials said the scale-back reflected the threat of Ukrainian drone attacks. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov blamed what he called Ukraine’s “terrorist activities,” while Moscow also told foreign diplomats to evacuate Kyiv staff in the event of a Ukrainian attempt to disrupt the celebration. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian weapons would not target Red Square, but the atmosphere around the parade showed how hard Moscow was working to control the risk.

The display was also notably smaller on the diplomatic stage. Last year’s 80th-anniversary parade featured about 11,000 servicemen and almost 200 military vehicles, with nearly 30 world leaders in attendance, including China’s Xi Jinping and Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. This year’s guest list was far shorter, with only Laos President Thongloun Sisoulith and Malaysian Supreme Ruler Sultan Ibrahim expected. The Kremlin said Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico would attend, although Fico said he planned to skip the event.

For years, Victory Day has been one of Putin’s most important political spectacles, a show of state power built on armor, missiles and military choreography. This year, the missing hardware said as much as the marching troops: the war was no longer something the Kremlin could keep at a distance from everyday Russian life.