Ramil Sitdikov - Host Photo Agency via Getty Images
While Soviet Victory Day anxieties loom across Europe, most Russians continue to support the war
From Kyiv to Tallinn to Chisinau to Tbilisi, and all the way to Oslo where I am writing this: Everyone is having May 9th jitters.
Will Putin use Soviet Victory Day, the commemoration of the Soviet Union’s 1945 victory over Nazi Germany, to declare an all-out war? This week officials from the U.S., Europe and Ukraine all speculated that this was his plan. A formal declaration of war, they argued, would enable the full mobilization of Russia’s reserve forces. Putin needs to do this in order to make up for catastrophic losses in Ukraine.
“Nonsense,” said Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
“Our military will not artificially adjust their actions to any date, including Victory Day,” said Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.