In a departure from decades of tradition, Russia will hold its annual Victory Day parade without heavy military equipment rolling across Red Square, the government said on Wednesday, acknowledging that long-range Ukrainian strikes were forcing the Kremlin to downsize its showcase of power and pride.
For years, President Vladimir V. Putin used the May 9 event, a grand celebration of the Soviet triumph over Nazi Germany, to demonstrate Russia’s military might, as leaders of the Soviet Union did for generations. Tanks, howitzers and nuclear missile launchers have traditionally paraded on Red Square before Mr. Putin and guests including President George W. Bush in 2005 and President Xi Jinping of China in 2015 and 2025.
But this year, the Russian Defense Ministry said, citing the “operational situation,” there will be no column of military equipment or marching students from military secondary schools. The parade will conclude with a flyover by Russian aerobatic teams and Su-25 ground-attack jets, the ministry said.
Speaking with reporters, Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, blamed Ukrainian strikes against targets deep inside Russia for the decision to host the parade in a “truncated format.” A Ukrainian attack last week against a major refinery in the town of Tuapse on the Black Sea caused an oil leak and a fire that lasted for days and released toxic fumes. And in late March and April, Ukraine struck Russian ports on the Baltic and Black seas, disrupting oil exports.
Mr. Peskov said that “all measures are, of course, being taken to minimize danger” to the Victory Day celebrations in Moscow.
Tanks were long the intimidating centerpiece of Russian ground forces, but in Ukraine they have proved to be vulnerable to drones and other weapons. Thousands have been destroyed in a war that has made both armored vehicles and the Russian military seem less imposing.
Their absence from Red Square underscores how, after more than four years of fighting — a conflict already longer than the war between Germany and the Soviet Union — Russia has been unable to achieve a decisive victory. In recent months, Russian troops have made only incremental gains despite losing hundreds of soldiers daily, either killed or severely wounded.
The parade has traditionally transcended divisions in Russia, serving as an expression of national pride in a country where almost every family had relatives who fought against Nazi Germany.
The Kremlin has tried to justify the invasion of Ukraine by falsely asserting that the government in Kyiv has been hijacked by a group of Nazis and posed a threat to Russia. The annual parade is a forum for promoting the war and the attempt to link it to the Soviet struggle against Nazism.
This year’s event will feature a live broadcast showing troops at the front line in Ukraine and crews of the Russian nuclear forces, aerospace divisions and Navy vessels.
Mr. Peskov noted that last year’s parade — which featured more than 180 military vehicles — commemorated the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory, so this year’s event was naturally smaller, he said.
But in previous years without a notable anniversary, the event had usually featured significant hardware, with dozens of armored vehicles. Even in the notably sparse 2023 parade, which did not have a single modern tank, a World War II-era T-34 tank led a column of about 40 military vehicles.
