MOSCOW -- Russia showed off new machines of war, including a highly sophisticated tank, in the annual Victory Day military parade Saturday through Red Square that marks the surrender of Nazi Germany and the Red Army's key role in the defeat.
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The Armata tank drew a round of strong applause as it rumbled through the square, part of a long convoy that ranged from the World War II era to the most modern. Also on view for the first time at the parade was a lumbering RS-24 Yars intercontinental ballistic missile launcher along with several new, smaller vehicles.
Victory Day is Russia's most important secular holiday, both commemorating the Soviet Union's suffering in the war and highlighting Russia's portrayal of itself as a force for peace and security. This year's parade, on the 70th anniversary of the surrender, was the biggest military parade since the Soviet Union's collapse.
In his speech to the assembled troops and veterans, President Vladimir Putin said the carnage of the war underlined the importance of international cooperation, but "in the past decades we have seen attempts to create a unipolar world." That phrase is often used by Russia to criticize the United States' purported aim to dominate world affairs.
The observances were shadowed by the near-complete absence of European leaders. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is to arrive in Moscow today, a visit that will include recognition of the Red Army's sacrifices.
Later Saturday, an estimated 300,000 people walked through central Moscow to Red Square, holding portraits of relatives who fought in the war. Putin joined the march of the so-called Immortal Regiment near Red Square, with a photo of his naval veteran father.
Putin said his father, "like millions of simple soldiers, and he was a simple soldier, had the right to walk across this square. But their fate turned so that not all of them could."
For veterans of the war, in which the Soviet Union is estimated to have lost 26 million people, including 8 million soldiers, the parade was an intensely emotional experience.
"When we fought, we had a couple of automatic pistols and a rifle -- now look at all the amazing military equipment we've got," said 92-year-old Valentina Schulgina, who fought in the Battle of Stalingrad, regarded by some as the bloodiest battle in history.
In all, about 200 pieces of military hardware and 16,500 troops took part in the parade, which concluded with a flyover of military aircraft.
The Armata tank that was one of the highlights of the parade is regarded by some military analysts as surpassing Western tanks. It is the first to have an internal armored capsule surrounding its three-man crew and a remotely controlled turret with an automatic loading system.
Seat of honor for China
The cold shoulder that European leaders turned toward Victory Day underlines the tensions between Russia and the West over the Ukraine crisis. As Western sanctions on Russia over its actions in Ukraine continue to bite, Russia has increasingly appeared to pivot away from Europe and focus more on developing relations with China.
A decade ago, President George W. Bush sat next to Putin on stands in front of Lenin's Tomb to observe the 60th anniversary. A decade before that, President Bill Clinton went to Moscow in an emotional post-Cold War visit. But Saturday, the most prominent visitor's seat went to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Putin took special note in his speech of China's role in the war, saying that like the Soviet Union, "it lost many, many millions of people."
The United States was represented by Ambassador John Tefft. Britain sent a grandson of Winston Churchill. China and India were the only major nations to send their heads of state, alongside about two dozen other leaders including United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Chinese troops paraded with Russians for the first time as well as soldiers from nations including Serbia, Azerbaijan, India and Mongolia.
An air of grievance mixes with the annual commemoration of the Nazi defeat, with Russians frequently complaining that the West undervalues the Red Army's role and even tries to "rewrite history."
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who met with Putin after the parade, echoed that strain. "No one can deny the role that Russia, the Soviet Union, played in the fight with Nazism, and history will never forget," he said.
In brief remarks on Red Square, Putin bridged commemoration of the past with anger over the present.
"We are grateful to the people of the United Kingdom and France, and the United States of America for their contribution to this victory," Putin said, speaking in front of a screen that covered Lenin's tomb, where the embalmed remains of the founder of the Soviet Union are on display.
"But during the last decade, the basic fundamental principles of international cooperation were increasingly ignored," he said. "We see the use of force. This kind of mentality undermines global stability."
Most of the more than 70 leaders who were invited stayed away, fueling a sense in Moscow that Russia had been slighted on what will probably be the final major anniversary at which more than a handful of surviving veterans will be present.
"We lost 27 million people so that we could live in peace," said Col. Andrei Pavlenko, 87, who was walking in his medal-bedecked green uniform in front of Moscow's main war memorial at Victory Park ahead of the ceremonies.
"It was our victory. But the fact that no one is coming to our celebration is a humiliation," he said. "Now Russia is being called the aggressor."
Western officials have countered that it would be inappropriate for them to watch a military parade with war simmering in Ukraine. More than 6,100 people have died there, according to U.N. estimates.
Putin has justified his aggressive moves in Ukraine with assertions that Russia needs to defend itself against NATO encroachment and what he contends is a U.S.-led plot to oust him from power.
Ukraine commemorations
In Ukraine, where millions of soldiers also were killed fighting in the Red Army, solemn commemorations took place, although they focused on the sacrifices of battle. President Petro Poroshenko rescheduled Ukraine's celebrations a day earlier, alongside the rest of Europe and away from Russia, and called it World War II -- the Western term -- rather than the Great Patriotic War.
"We will never celebrate this day as the Russians do, using the Victory Day in a coldblooded way to further their expansionary policies and keep their neighbors under their influence," Poroshenko said. "The world supports Ukraine in its struggle for independence. One manifestation of this support was the broad international boycott of today's parade on Red Square."
In Berlin on Saturday, several thousand people gathered at the biggest of the city's Soviet war memorials to mark the surrender of Nazi Germany, among them Russia's ambassador and bikers wearing the colors of the nationalist Night Wolves group.
With some carrying Russian or Soviet flags, people laid flowers at the large memorial in Berlin's Treptow district. It includes a mausoleum topped by the figure of a soldier standing on a shattered swastika.
The pro-Kremlin Night Wolves' plans to ride from Moscow to Berlin to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the war's end in Europe prompted contention, particularly in Poland where officials denied them entry. German courts, however, ruled there was no legal reason to keep them away.
In Belarus, U.S. servicemen marched together with Russian soldiers in the Victory Day parade.
Opening Saturday's parade, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said it was "deeply symbolic" that representatives of the U.S. and Russian armed forces were taking part.
Forty members of the U.S. Air Force band were among more than 5,000 troops in the parade.
Belarus, once part of the Soviet Union, has close ties with Russia, but Lukashenko has tried to serve as a bridge with the West by hosting Ukraine peace talks.
In Washington, D.C., on Friday, hundreds of dignitaries and veterans gathered for ceremonies at the National World War II Memorial, which included a flyover of planes flown in the war.
The keynote speaker during the commemorative ceremony was national security adviser Susan Rice, daughter of a member of the legendary black World War II aviation group, the Tuskegee Airmen.
"The story of your generation will never be forgotten," she said. "We will continue to tell it to children blessedly untouched by war. So that they understand, as this memorial reminds us, the price of freedom."
Information for this article was contributed by Jim Heintz, Kate de Pury and staff members of The Associated Press; by Michael Birnbaum, Michael E. Ruane, Martin Weil and Lori Aratani of The Washington Post; by Carol J. Williams of the Los Angeles Times; and by Ilya Arkhipov, Torrey Clark and Vladimir Kuznetsov of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 05/10/2015