Russia says it does not need Ukraine’s consent to hold the May 9 Victory Day military parade in Moscow, after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued a decree “permitting” the event to go ahead.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made the statement on May 8, 2026, responding to a decree signed by Zelenskyy earlier that day. The decree excluded Red Square from Ukrainian strike plans for the duration of the parade, describing the move as a humanitarian gesture linked to a prisoner exchange. Peskov dismissed the idea that Russia required such clearance.
“We don’t need anyone’s permission,” Peskov told reporters, according to the state news agency TASS. He added that anyone who tried to mock Victory Day would face consequences, calling such attempts “silly jokes.” The spokesman stressed that Russia needed no outside approval to be proud of its Victory Day, which marks the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.
The exchange followed the publication of Ukrainian presidential decree No. 374/2026. The document stated that, taking into account “numerous requests” and humanitarian considerations discussed with the American side, the parade in Moscow would be permitted on May 9, 2026. For the duration of the event, starting at 10:00 Kyiv time, the precise coordinates of Red Square were to be excluded from Ukraine’s operational weapons deployment plans.
Zelenskyy linked the decree directly to a prisoner swap. In a public statement, he said that Red Square was “less important to us than the lives of Ukrainian prisoners who can be brought home.” The deal, mediated by U.S. President Donald Trump, involved a “1,000 for 1,000” exchange of prisoners of war between Russia and Ukraine.
The diplomatic back-and-forth unfolded against a backdrop of heightened security concerns. Russia’s Defence Ministry had already announced that this year’s parade would be held in a reduced format. For the first time in nearly two decades, the event would feature no heavy military hardware — no tanks, no ballistic missile carriers — rolling across the cobbles of Red Square. Officials cited the “current operational situation” in Ukraine, where much of Russia’s military equipment remains deployed.
Security fears were not abstract. In the days before the parade, a Ukrainian drone struck a building roughly four miles from the Kremlin. Russian authorities warned that additional protective measures would be taken around President Vladimir Putin during the event. Mobile internet services in central Moscow were also restricted as part of the security operation.
The Kremlin also found itself in a dispute over media access. Several foreign news organisations, including Germany’s Der Spiegel, reported that their accreditation to cover the parade had been revoked by telephone, a move that would mark the first time foreign media were barred from the event since it began. Peskov, however, insisted that no journalist had been stripped of accreditation, explaining that the number of attendees was simply limited due to the changed format.
A three-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, covering May 9 to 11, was brokered by Trump, who publicly thanked both Putin and Zelenskyy for agreeing. Peskov confirmed that the ceasefire extension was an American initiative. Putin’s schedule for May 9 included more than ten bilateral meetings with visiting foreign delegations, though the Kremlin said no special invitations had been extended to foreign dignitaries this year.
The Victory Day parade has long served as a pillar of Russian national identity under Putin, who reintroduced military hardware to the event in 2008. This year’s scaled-back display, stripped of its traditional armour and held under the shadow of drone threats and a grinding war, offered a stark contrast to the assertive messaging of earlier years.