In a speech at a military parade in moscow on May 9, russian president putin repeated lukashenko's theses that russia had delivered a "preventive strike" by launching an invasion of Ukraine on February 24, and this was "the only right decision". This is reported by Radio Liberty.
Putin called actions of the USA and NATO countries, which, according to him, denied security guarantees to russia and prepared Ukraine for an attack on the russian "historical lands", including the Crimea, the reason for the start of the so-called "special operation" in Ukraine.
The report recalls that before Victory Day, a number of British and American media, citing intelligence sources, wrote that putin, due to the relative setbacks suffered by the russian army, could declare war on Ukraine or announce mobilization. Putin did not make such statements.
There are also reports of arrests in a number of cities in the russian federation, where on May 9, people brought anti-war posters to the Immortal Regiment. This form of protest was called for, in particular, by the Vesna movement. Several of its activists in St. Petersburg and other cities were detained shortly before Victory Day, including on criminal charges.
It is also noted that President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, who drew parallels between Nazi Germany and modern russia shortly before, stated in a new video message that soon, two Victory Days would be celebrated in Ukraine, and "somewhere" - not a single one.
As reported, self-proclaimed president of Belarus alexander lukashenko earlier stated that "an attack was being prepared on Belarus, and if a preventive strike on positions had not been delivered six hours before the operation…". "Four positions, I will show you a map now, I brought it. They would have attacked our troops of Belarus and Russia, which were on the exercise. Therefore, we did not unleash this war, our conscience is clear", - lukashenko stated, after which he became the hero of numerous memes in social networks.