This year, fighter jets will fly over central Moscow in the shape of a “Z,” the symbol that is widely used to show support for Russian troops in Ukraine. Since the 1960s, Russia’s annual May 9 holiday has traditionally been marked by large military parades, large marches in major cities and other public events. Russian officials regularly accuse Ukraine of being a Nazi state, and Russian troops have raised World War II-era military banners over buildings and towns captured from Ukrainian forces. Much of the Russian campaign in Ukraine has also been saturated with historical analogies, particularly World War II imagery. ![]() The use of symbolic dates has been significant throughout Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, with the invasion beginning the day after Defenders of the Fatherland Day, which marks the anniversary of the founding of the Red Army. “We’re expecting something bad - all of us here in Turkey, maybe not on that day in particular, but in the run-up to it.” “I will be happy if I’m mistaken, but I think for Putin, May is very important… I think Putin imagines the victory parade to be like 1945,” he said, requesting anonymity to speak freely. One Russian officer-in-reserve who works in advertising and flew to Turkey shortly after the invasion to avoid possible conscription said he was planning to go back to Russia for the May 9 holidays in order to see family and collect some possessions. While some do not plan to return to Russia until the end of the regime, others are anxiously tracking developments in Moscow and trying to calculate when it might be safe to go back - if just to collect belongings and plan a more permanent emigration. Tens of thousands of emigre Russians are currently living in countries including Armenia, Georgia, Turkey and Latvia after fleeing abroad following the invasion of Ukraine in fear of conscription, political persecution and the economic fallout of the fighting. “It’s a question of what they are going to frame as a victory.” “Putin’s going to have to say something about the war,” she said. ![]() “Right now May 9 seems like a date that you can pin some hope on,” said Olga, an IT professional who left Russia for Turkey soon after the invasion began and asked for anonymity to speak freely. There has been much speculation that Russian President Vladimir Putin will use the occasion, which includes a large military parade through central Moscow, to make a major announcement about the war with Ukraine, perhaps even to declare victory. Anti-war Russians who fled abroad in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine are looking to the upcoming annual celebrations of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany on May 9 in order to gauge the viability of returning home.
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