President Vladimir Putin is expected to use an event to mark the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany to rally Russians around his military campaign in Ukraine later on Thursday.
Putin is due to give a speech in Volgograd, a city in the south of Russia, which until 1961 was called Stalingrad and the site of the bloodiest battle of World War II when the Soviet Red Army broke advancing German forces.
Remembering and paying tribute to those who fought is sacred in Russia, where the authorities have long cast it as an enduring symbol of selfless patriotism and heroic resilience.
Russian officials have often drawn parallels between defeating the Nazis in World War II and the invasion of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Belarus’s defence ministry says it has completed a two-week-long joint air force drill with Russian forces.
The ministry said a wide range of tasks had been completed during the drills, which it added were “exclusively defensive in nature”.
Credit: Aljazeera.com
