without tanks, but with nuclear threats , a victory parade was held in moscow. how it shows the general state of the russian military machine during the war against ukraine. we are talking about this on the bbc live from london. i am evgenia. this is the third victory parade in moscow after the full-scale invasion of ukraine, and this time it was smaller in scale than in previous years. one single tank was displayed: the soviet t-34, a tank from the second world war, he led the convoy, there were 61 armored vehicles in total , half the number compared to last year, when there were 125 different machines, the russians did not demonstrate any new developments, except such heavy combat vehicles, infantry, boomerangs. which

were exhibited in previous years, but still the russian military paraded operational-tactical missile systems iskander and anti-aircraft systems s-400 and also showed intercontinental ballistic missiles yars, but for russia this is not only a demonstration of military capability, demonstrative power, as the bbc's steve rosenberg says about it. here in the center of moscow, as you can see, a big parade for victory day has begun, and people are taking part in it the participation of thousands of military personnel, and more than where... they march through red square under the snow, and although i say that the parade is big, but still not as much as in previous years, before russia's invasion of ukraine. now in russia, under the rule of vladimir putin, the victory has become a major national holiday, a day commemorating the soviet victory over nazi germany, as well as a day when the victory came at a huge cost. 27 million soviet citizens. were killed during the so-called

great patriotic war. behind me is a parade of military equipment. in general, a day of victory for russia is an opportunity to show russian strength. i remembered the second world war. today, russia does not just honor the past, but uses it as a weapon, trying to justify the present. so the authorities want the russian society to consider the war in ukraine as a continuation of the second world war. they want russians to believe that outside forces are trying to destroy russia again. nazi germany then, ukraine and the west today. but in fact, two years ago, it was russia that attacked ukraine, launching a full-scale invasion. in his speech putin warned the event. he said russia will do everything to avoid a global confrontation, but at the same time will not allow it.

no one to threaten her, and mentioned that russia's strategic forces are constantly on alert. at the end of the parade is military aircraft, which depicts the russian tricolor in the sky, and the end of the war in ukraine, or the end of the tension between russia and the west, is not in sight. and this statement by putin, strategic forces, i.e. nuclear weapons are always in combat readiness, was made when russia previously announced about'. will test non- strategic, tactical nuclear weapons. belarus, to which russia is said to have transferred such weapons, announced inspections of carriers, iskanders and aircraft, and already today after the parade, putin explained that belarus will join russian nuclear exercises in the second of three stages, but still, what do the russians mean nuclear threats, this is the opinion of the former british ambassador to russia, tony brenton. as was already said in russia.

victory day is a very, very big event. everyone is watching the parade broadcast on tv. russians use this day as a confirmation of patriotic solidarity, and hence the desire to win the war in ukraine. and , of course, a war against the west, which supports ukraine in every possible way and poses a threat to russia. that is why russians always repeat: we, great russia, were already victorious in 1945. we will win this time too. a rather notable feature of this year's parade is, of course , putin's announcement of tactical nuclear weapons training. this is the first time that statements about the possible use of nuclear weapons are being made so loudly, although putin is still talking about it since the beginning of the war. which is pretty exciting, really? i believe that at present there are no sufficient grounds for concern. no one i've talked to sees any reason to believe that nuclear weapons could be used in this context. russia has been clearly

warned, especially by the chinese authorities, that the consequences of using nuclear weapons will be very bad, so at the moment there are no signs that this will ... happen, but if the ukrainians can seriously advance deep into russian territory, or pose a real threat to the occupied by russians crimea, the probability of using nuclear weapons may increase significantly. and we are in touch with a military observer, head of the center for military legal research oleksandr musienko. in your opinion, putin at the council continued, according to your previous definitions , the soft rhetoric that he used during his inauguration. how do you generally evaluate his statements at the parade? the rhetoric is really somewhat soft in the sense that earlier putin used such aggressive attacks, very powerful and personal insults, a boorish manner in general in terms of expression and towards ukrainian authorities and to ukraine, that is already clear, but also

to western leaders. i wouldn't say and i can't draw conclusions that this means anything from the point of view of policy revision or decisions on the part of russia, because... so far it is not traceable, at this stage we can only state the softening of this rhetoric, at least it is different from previous statements, what it will lead to and whether it means any signals from russia to the west that they are ready for some negotiations about something and so on, in the end putin talked about it under it is difficult to say at the time of the inauguration, because russia does not give up its aggressive and belligerent plans, at least for ukraine, and continues hostilities on the other hand, putin mentioned nuclear weapons again, he always mentions it, and it seems to me , this is almost the only trump card that he has up his sleeve now, in general, why is he being counted on and why, maybe the tomahawks have not yet flown to moscow and other cities, but you know what i noticed, i

noticed that when russia , when putin announced and threatened nuclear weapons in september 2022, when he was mobilizing. in russia announced its decree, the west was much more concerned, a lot was written about it, talked about it, then there really was a risk that russia could apply it, and it was taken seriously, now i see that yes, they are talking about it, so it is perceived as a certain challenge, but it is much calmer, it seems to me, that is, this is it, by the way, and the parade demonstrated that why russia does not show and export this equipment now, well, first of all, there are many in the war against. countries, and secondly, this does not intimidate the west, because when russia brought a huge amount of equipment to the parade, they wanted to show a propaganda picture, they say, look and be afraid of us, but now a lot of myths about russia, about its so-called power

and about its capabilities, and the debunking of these myths are debunked, it goes along different tracks, in particular , on the parade, and on the threat of nuclear weapons and their potential. applications, this, i think, can be traced, if before may 9 it shows what the current state of the russian army is, what did we see, besides the fact that there is no new equipment, and we saw, actually saying, you understand, the most important thing is that, the most important thing is that everything, russia cannot use it from the point of view of propaganda, because everyone in the west has already seen the real state of affairs of the russian troops, because everyone is monitoring, everyone knows, the media write about it, how much russia has lost so... how much artillery it is losing, russia is unable to achieve strategic successes in the war against ukraine, to defeat ukraine, this is the first thing, the second thing, they have nothing to surprise now with new products that would impress them with something there, because they as such today there is no, because russia

rolled back on its weapons production programs, that is, yes, they produce weapons, yes , crazy money is invested in the production of weapons, this is true, but they are no longer the same samples... but the weapons that were there before, there are the same tanks, guns or something else something that they could bring out is a weapon that is already in principle, it may be new, but it is of the 70s and 80s models , and they don't want to show it, because it is largely destroyed at the front, and therefore i think that here there was nothing about, mr. alexander, please stay contact us, let's listen together to how the russian parade is commented by western commentators. and professor of the norwegian institute of defense research katrazhyna zysk. the circumstances surrounding the victory parade this year were somewhat better for putin than last year. he seems to have the upper hand at the front for now. in part, this became possible due to the weakness shown by

the event and the delay in the aid package to ukraine from the united states. all this together allowed putin and the russian armed forces to make some progress. also in russia is gaining after the war, russia managed to restore and significantly increase industrial weapons production. as i said, it is happening. poor military reform, the goal of which is to create a powerful soviet-style army. however, there are many, if not many, potential problems that russia faces along the way, but we see a different, different russia at war with the world today. at the same time, putin slandered that the country is going through difficult times, and russian propaganda, in my opinion, has a very hard time hiding that the country is going through economic problems, that this war... has huge economic, financial and human cost, so i think his speech today

was partly about that, i also think that putin is preparing the russians for the fact that this could go on for a very long time. there is a certain date that has been discussed in russia for the victory in ukraine, it is 2026, so i think that is what the propaganda is trying to prepare the russian public for, and this victory parade and the war against nazi germany is essentially relayed to the war in ukraine , it's also a way for us... the public to prepare them for the sacrifices, again, as economic, financial and human. in addition, russia intensified repression. so this is something like an existential war that russia is waging. this is exactly how putin is trying to present the war in ukraine. and by the way, who came to moscow that day also showed, in addition to lukashenka, there were presidents of uzbekistan, turkmenistan, tajikistan, kyrgyzstan, and kazakhstan. the leaders of cuba, laos and guinea-bissau were also invited, so they together laid flowers at the grave

of the unknown soldier near the kremlin, and we return to the conversation with oleksandr mosienko, mr. oleksandr, do you remember in in 2015, already after russia annexed crimea, the leader of china, xi jinping, came to moscow in advance. now, if we talk about china, can something change in china's position regarding russia's war against ukraine? you know? i wouldn't say that something will fundamentally change because of those simple reasons, because it seems to me that in the end this state of affairs is beneficial to china in a certain way, because russia is weakening and becoming more and more dependent on china, and china can dictate its terms, first of all, economic and getting cheap oil and gas carriers and not only claim to carry out at least the expansion of their companies, firms there to the far east, and receive it for their own use. on the other hand , it is clear that the war itself, the great war in europe and the threats and trends of its spread,

they can have a negative impact on the economy of china, and this is what can force them to take certain steps, and i think the most important thing for us , if china is indeed willing to reduce the supply of some enabling dual-use technologies for russia to produce weapons, it will already be a success, but i don't think that china currently... today has a solution that fully suits ukraine and all of us, because the maximum that china can offer, as it seems to me, is a frontline truce, it's not even peace, it's a frontline truce , and i think china is relying more on a political solution, particularly that the west will do it, that europe will do it, but the united kingdom, the united states, france, and they will join something later. it seems to me that there is no independent in china a comprehensive plan, how it can be stopped

today, again, due to the fact that, on the one hand, it is not profitable for them to spread and grow this conflict further, and the involvement of european countries in it, on the other hand, it is not profitable for them in principle , so that the situation stabilizes, because then russia can potentially reduce its dependence, precisely on the sky. mr. oleksandr, thank you for... being with us on the air, oleksandr mosienko, head of the center for military legal research, joined us, on unfortunately, we have to end the broadcast, and by the way, you can read how ukraine is preparing to repel a new russian offensive on our website bbc.ua in this article, if we talk about the situation at the front. i say goodbye to you until tomorrow, see you.

congratulations to the viewers of the tv channel, the project veliky lviv says, traditionally starts every thursday at 21:15. from a conversation with vitaly portnikov, we will not hide that it is already underway on our youtube, you can search for our project there, says velikiy lefte , subscribe to all our social networks, and also youtube channels, of which there are several vitaly portnikova. mr. vitaly, i want to start a conversation with you on the air of the tv channel, after all

, we heard your opinion on the continuation of the nuclear topic and nuclear threats from the russian federation, which we have already discussed on youtube. but i would like to ask such a simple question, there is a so-called doomsday clock, well, this is more of a metaphorical story, where the hand of the clock moves to a possible apocalypse, or it does not move, it almost never moved in the other direction in reality, and there is an opinion that perhaps the most delicate moment before the start of a nuclear confrontation was the so-called caribbean crisis between the united states of america. and the soviet union, as you think, it was hotter then than now, when from moscow, nuclear threats, the british allow not nuclear missiles, but shelling of russian objects, and well, let's say, a simple question, when we were closer to nuclear conflict, the world then or now? the caribbean crisis was connected with

the fact that the soviet union was meeting secretly, without any threats. spread their nuclear missiles in the immediate vicinity of the coast of the united states of america. it was still a time when all these nuclear charges, er, they moved completely differently than they do now. there were completely different means of delivery. and when nuclear missiles were in close proximity to the shores of the united states at bases on the island of cuba. by the way, the soviet union itself was afraid, according to its leaders. the fact that american missiles will be located in turkey, i.e. closer to the soviet borders than before, it seemed like an existential threat for the united states, and the caribbean crisis was connected precisely with this, and they will try to secretly place missiles on the territory of cuba, which threatened the very security, even the existence of

the united states of america, and that is why it was very close to a real military confrontation. nothing like that is happening now for the simple reason that both russia and the united states are not at all ready for a direct conflict with each other, and then it was about a direct conflict. we talk a lot about the swiss negotiations, and you have more than once in many interviews, it is probably not even worth going back to this topic, they said that what will happen in switzerland, apart from such a conversation, formality, there will be no concrete action. will be, instead , sidzin piña is currently touring europe, he visited france, he went on to serbia and hungary, countries that are actually friendly to the russian federation. what do you think, well, we understand what is likely to be said at the peace summit in switzerland, the countries, our allies, and that

will also be important, especially if biden is there present, what plan will be offered to us through china, eh? obviously the russian federation or china together with the russian federation, what are they preparing and what are the conclusions from this european tour of the chinese leader, after all , he first went to europe, and only then will he receive putin? i think that he expressed his position absolutely clearly in paris: a conference between russia and ukraine is needed, and this is exactly what dialogue between them can become. some step towards ending what sidzimpin calls the conflict in ukraine. but the question arises, how much does the russian federation need it? well, we know by and large all the conditions that russia demands and puts forward. they haven't changed. recognition of the russian status of the occupied territories, demilitarization,

neutral status. i don't think that vladimir putin is going to move away from now. such conditions, and i have a perfectly clear understanding that he will adhere to them at least as far as his resources will permit, but to imagine that he would agree to any conditions that would be, say, agreed upon under lucerne today, i cannot imagine either , and french president emmanuel macron and european commission president ursula fondelein talked about it, at least in their statements and claimed that this is what they were conveying to the leader. and for them, china to stop supplying weapons to the russian federation and, in principle, to somehow terminate these ties, this may somehow affect the actions of china, what? these words of the european leaders can mean for sidzen pinja. well, look, china does not supply weapons to the russian federation. it supplies dual-purpose products that

allow you to restore military-technical complex. i think that it will not mean anything to dlyapina, because he is interested in russia at least not being defeated in this war. and i think that he will simply behave more carefully. because the sanctions of the united states, well, by the way, about which he warned. secretary of state antony blinken during his stay in beijing, and he does not want any deterioration in economic relations with european countries, but he made it clear that he is not going to pay attention to any pressure and that on the day of the stay of the secretary of state of the united states in beijing, in astana met with the minister of defense of the russian federation of the people's republic of china, is a convincing proof that the chinese love such symbols, that xizen ping is not going to pay attention to them. they said that here the president of france managed to achieve almost nothing, he succeeded in such economic issues there, but when it came directly to

the conversation about russia, ukraine and about chinese participation, then nothing seriously changed here. mr. vitaly's question is in our comments: has the world not yet realized the full threat from mordor, because mordor are followers of hitler and nazism, well, they wrote this in the context of may 9. i think that it is different in different countries, to what extent the countries that are closer to russia may be more aware of it, the countries that are further from russia may not be so aware of it, many believe that russia, based on its economic potential, is unlikely to capable of posing a serious threat to the west, especially those countries that are members of nato and believe that they are under the nuclear umbrella, if not the united states, then great britain and france, in any case it is necessary remember that when we compare there... with hitler, we should know that putin, unlike hitler, does not have nuclear weapons. who among us can realize how the history of mankind would have developed if breich had obtained nuclear weapons. perhaps the second world war ended

not where we think, not in berlin, on some completely different borders and with some completely different agreements, but you already know that, it is a matter of the past. now we are talking about a major conflict involving nuclear power , and this is an absolutely unprecedented situation history of mankind. and how to get out of this situation? no one knows yet, because there were no precedents as such. we thank vitaly portnikov, traditionally for the expert opinion, which is definitely needed by our viewers, as evidenced by the viewing of broadcasts and cuts with vitaly portnik. traditionally, the project is told by velikiy lviv, we start with a conversation with vitaly portnik. at the same time, in our studio, if there is an opportunity to show several frames, it is already there.

of the state, we are in the mode of live broadcasting, there is the largest discussion platform of the whole we are moving, so stay with us, we welcome our guest, who we already have. we are working live, so we are ready to introduce those who are with us today: vasyl shpik, a serviceman of the armed forces of ukraine, is with us today, glory to ukraine, we congratulate yury pidlisny, head of the ethics, politics, economics program, head of the department of political of sciences of ucu, ukrainian katoryt university, if anyone does not know how to decipher them. oksana yurnets, with us, people's deputy of ukraine, eighth convocation, ex-chairman of the permanent assembly delegation of ukraine in the parliamentary. nato assembly. volodymyr hirnyak, head of the civic position party, we say good evening to you too. good evening. mykola buchyn, with us, political scientist, professor of the lviv polytechnic national university. good

evening. let's start a conversation. well, it is already such, well, no, how to say, a good tradition, a correct tradition. in our studio, we always give the first word to military personnel. mr. vasyl, we called our broadcast: everything is very complicated. because in fact we , from the information we receive from the fronts, we we understand that there, especially if we say, as it is now called the pokrovsky direction, the russians are advancing somewhere, one way or another, there is no breakthrough, but nevertheless, let's put it this way, the trend is still threatening for ukraine, and the situation around the mobilization process is not easy , about this, well , isn’t the lazy already talking in our state, your assessment of what is now on the front and to what extent it is... these risks are significant in relation to what they say is a breakthrough, a serious breakthrough by the forces of the russian federation, conversations have intensified

about kharkiv region and sumy region, if on... many people talk about it, your analysis of what is happening on the fronts now? congratulations, uh, i just returned from the front yesterday, this morning, i was at the guys’ guests, you could say, uh, i just talked with them, uh, on account of any section of the front, well, it’s just uh , every section the section of the front is a small bakhmut and so on, well, that is , our defenders are defending very bravely, they are already tired, so the enemy has resources, both human and weapons, but ours are holding on, well, that is, and so on the account of... i am not

competent to give whether there will be a breakthrough or not, but in my subjective opinion, it is quite possible, it is quite possible that there may be some breakthroughs and so on, well, that is, we can don't forget, we can remember even this one, few people believed that there would be an attack on kyiv and so on, well, that is, agree, well , i myself uh... didn't believe it, well, that is, but it happened, and uh, and that it's again, so that it happens again, maybe, well, that is, right now, at this very second, it's just happening there the battles are very serious, and our guys are holding the front, so i ask her not to forget

that... that at any second there is a person drinking coffee and just to remember that at this very second right now at the front it's just, well, there let's take some part of the front there, some branch there , they are there on the border with death between life, well , that is, and ee, well, and such, well, that is, everywhere along the front. what i will say is that somewhere it is harder, somewhere more, the enemy is approaching with larger forces, somewhere with smaller ones, but all the same, it is on the front, well, almost everywhere at the moment the moment is difficult, all the more so now it is already warm, now the forests are starting to burn and

so on, well, it is... difficult, and please tell me, it is also important to clarify, we have all been waiting for these decisions for a very long time about western weapons, in the first days after biden signed everything there, there was information that weapons were already on the front, well, a lot of these weapons, now we hear that after all, well, not everything is rosy, no everything that is needed has still arrived, so what is the situation with it as of now, what is possible. speaks live i understand very well that maybe not everything can be said, but the situation is like this, our guys are fighting with the availability of what they have, they do it there themselves, or volunteers send, or they attach fpa drones themselves, and so on, at the expense of the western weapons, i don't know, well, i think, if it even

exists, it will be... heavier, well, it will be of the same type as now, but maybe somewhere in some areas of it, well, that is, ours will succeed, that is take some initiative, mr. hirnyak, what do you think you see now with what we hear from our international and partners and the media, who report that russia may try... to make another breakthrough, we understand that they are theoretically capable of this, and indeed what we see on the fronts, this is a situation we do not take lightly from our military, in particular, but the question is that we constantly hear that they can do something, they scare us all the time, and they mention nukes, the question is how much theirs will be enough.