- 5/9/2025
The 80th Anniversary Victory Day Parade has concluded in Moscow 🇷🇺, with President Vladimir Putin delivering a powerful speech 📣: Russia will never accept the rewriting of history and will always honor the heroes who freed the world from fascism ✊🕊️.
From the rooftops of Moscow to the cobblestones of Red Square, our correspondents captured every moment 🎥🎇. Despite Western pressure and threats, global dignitaries gathered to pay tribute to this historic victory. 🌍👏
#VictoryDay #Russia #MoscowParade #PutinSpeech #80YearsOn #WWIIHeroes #NeverForget #RedSquare #GreatPatrioticWar #HistoryMatters #FascismDefeated #VDay2025 #RussianHistory #Dignitaries #Geopolitics #WesternNarrative #Veterans #GlobalTribute #HistoricalTruth #MilitaryParade
From the rooftops of Moscow to the cobblestones of Red Square, our correspondents captured every moment 🎥🎇. Despite Western pressure and threats, global dignitaries gathered to pay tribute to this historic victory. 🌍👏
#VictoryDay #Russia #MoscowParade #PutinSpeech #80YearsOn #WWIIHeroes #NeverForget #RedSquare #GreatPatrioticWar #HistoryMatters #FascismDefeated #VDay2025 #RussianHistory #Dignitaries #Geopolitics #WesternNarrative #Veterans #GlobalTribute #HistoricalTruth #MilitaryParade
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NewsTranscript
00:00Vinci was speaking. Towards the end of the parade now, a lot of the military
00:05hardware just coming out behind us here. We've got the anti-tanks, we've got the
00:11we've already seen the tanks, we've seen the missile charges, the flamethrowers
00:17as well are there. A lot going on.
00:23Rolling out the red carpet, dignitaries turned up in their droves to honor the
00:27memory of the victory. That is despite Western efforts to rain on Moscow's
00:32parade and even issue threats against those attending.
00:57Midday in Moscow, you are very welcome to our rolling coverage of Victory Day 2025 here
01:11on the banks of the Moskova River. The main parade finished up, wrapped up not very long
01:18ago, but we've got much reaction and all the highlights from the morning that was.
01:24I'm Yunnan O'Neill. This is Saskia Taylor.
01:27And it is, of course, 80 years since Nazi forces were finally defeated.
01:33Moscow has been the epicenter of Russia's celebrations and commemorations.
01:38Vladimir Putin addressed the crowds in Red Square, underlining that Russia will never
01:43allow anyone to rewrite history and will always remember its heroes.
01:52I congratulate you on the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War.
01:57Today, we are all united by feelings of joy and sorrow, pride and gratitude, admiration
02:03for the generation that crushed Nazism at the cost of millions of lives, won freedom and
02:08peace for all mankind. We faithfully preserve the memory of these historical triumphant events.
02:15And as the heirs of the victors, we celebrate the holiday of May the 9th as our own, as the
02:20most important for the country, for each family, for each of us.
02:24Our fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers saved the fatherland and bequeathed to us to
02:29defend the homeland, firmly defend our national interests. A thousand-year history, culture, traditional
02:35values, everything that's dear to us, that is sacred to us. We remember the lessons of
02:40the Second World War and will never agree with the distortion of its events, with attempts to
02:44justify the executioners and slander the true victors. Our duty is to defend the honor of the
02:50soldiers and commanders of the Red Army, the great feet of various representatives of different
02:55nationalities who will forever remain in world history as Russian soldiers. Russia has been and will
03:01be an indestructible barrier to Nazism, Russophobia, anti-Semitism. We'll fight the atrocities
03:07committed by the proponents of these aggressive, destructive ideas. Truth and justice are on our
03:14side. The entire country, society and people support the participation of the Special Military
03:20Operation. We're proud of their courage and determination, that strength of spirit that has always
03:25brought us only victory.
03:55The hundreds of military personnel, dozens of tanks, vehicles and jets all have been passing
04:09along and above Red Square in a showcase of Russia's military might.
04:15And taking part, by the way, for the first time ever, was a column of drones.
04:20Here's some of the highlights of our special coverage right from the heart of the Victory
04:24Day Parade.
04:27As per tradition, the armored portion is going to be led by the legendary T-34 tank and right
04:36behind it is a brigade of other T-34 tanks as well as more modern tanks and other hardware
04:42that's going to follow.
04:44In terms of, of course, the military hardware that was involved in World War II, the Nazis
04:51caught the Soviet Union by surprise in 1941.
04:54Their idea, of course, was Blitzkrieg, lightning war.
04:58They wanted to take the Soviet Union by surprise and take it in a matter of weeks.
05:02But they stopped them at the gates of Moscow.
05:06And many factories were able to be evacuated farther eastward in the Soviet Union.
05:11They were not destroyed by the Nazis.
05:14And they were able to continue their production of military hardware farther east in the country
05:20within the framework of the Soviets' military wartime planned economy that was able to turn things
05:27around in terms of around 1943, pretty much after the Battle of Stalingrad was won by the Soviets
05:36in February of 1943.
05:38That was when the tide was really changed.
05:41That was when reserves were brought from the far east, more tanks and military equipment that had
05:48been produced during the Battle of Stalingrad and before also when the battle for Moscow was going on.
05:55That hardware was brought back to the eastern front.
05:59The reserves were basically, obviously, bringing more Soviet troops to the front after the Nazis were
06:07already on the retreat.
06:08And then that was trouble, of course, for the German military that was on retreat pretty much
06:14from 1943 onwards.
06:16So that's why this T-34 tank, I mean, of course, that tank was one of the main battle tanks in the
06:24Soviet military during that time, which you're going to see behind me right now.
06:27It's here we go.
06:30And they've got the red banner on top of the front tank as well.
06:36There we go.
06:37You're not going to hear much more of what I'm saying here.
06:39The whole earth is starting to shake as it always does on Red Square during the armored portion.
06:57You're not going to hear much more of what I'm saying here.
07:02Well, we have been talking a little bit about the 24th of June, 1945, when this very square
07:08filled with the triumphant march of the first victory parade.
07:13And it was held over a month after the Soviet flag flew high above Berlin's Reichstag.
07:20That delay was necessary because Moscow needed time to bring its troops home and prepare for
07:26the largest military procession the world had ever seen.
07:31That first victory parade was a display of raw emotion and patriotic pride.
07:37And Marshal Georgi Zhukov, the architect of Berlin's fall, he rode across the square on a white stallion.
07:45And then the soldiers, not just parade ground troops, but frontline veterans,
07:49many of whom still bore wounds as they marched across this bridge.
07:54And the parade almost didn't happen because of the raid, but Stalin insisted that it proceed.
08:02And so beneath the gray skies, columns of T-34 tanks, in fact, ones we just saw that
08:09crushed the Wehrmacht, rolled over the cobblestones. 1400 member band played nonstop for two hours,
08:16led by Major General Genetsky, who spent the war composing scores of military marches at the front
08:23line. A thousand artillery guns fired in salute. Scores of trucks released hundreds of balloons into the
08:31sky, followed by the national anthem. Around 35,000 people participated, three times more than today,
08:39representatives from the anti-hitler coalition, U.S., Great Britain, France. This was more than just a
08:45military parade. It was a demonstration of Russia's stature to the Soviet people, its new allies,
08:52its adversaries. A testament to resilience, to the millions who fought, suffered and triumphed over
08:59Nazism. Well, 80 years later, we stand here. I've got trunks, tanks to my left, trunks behind me too.
09:07And we honor those who marched that day, the fallen who never returned, and the unbreakable will of
09:14those who fought against Nazism. Today, as the march of generations continues, we carry forward
09:20their legacy, the fight against fascism, the defense of truth, the commitment to peace.
09:27Well, I want to cross now to Red Square, because the person who definitely cannot hear right now is
09:34Charlotte Dubinsky. I can barely hear myself even think as the tanks, the military equipment is just
09:42roaring past me. Just a moment ago, I had my head turned towards them, and I could see all of the smoke
09:49coming out, and I was looking for some of the military equipment that was involved in the second
09:55world war. There you go, getting a little bit quieter now as some of those tanks have gone passing.
10:00And one that I was really looking forward to seeing was, as I get louder again, was the self-propelled
10:07artillery unit. This is the SU-100s. They were involved in the war in 1944, and actually when they were
10:17introduced, they were extensively used. And one of the reasons for that is they were so popular, because
10:26the gun could pretty much penetrate anything. And as a result of that, that really shocked a lot of
10:33the Germans. So, yes, a little lull here, but it just feels like this rumbling, rumbling, rumbling.
10:39You can feel it. It's almost like your heart is pounding. And so interesting to see the equipment that's
10:46from the past that's from the present, and to get a sense of just how enormous these pieces are, how
10:56mighty they must have seemed, particularly in the second world war, when there was so much
11:01development of military hardware and equipment, and how these fierce tanks, fierce military equipment,
11:09really did put such the fear into many in the German army.
11:15Charlotte, you manfully got through that. It's a noisy morning in Moscow. But just as
11:21Charlotte Dubincy was speaking, towards the end of the parade now, a lot of the military hardware
11:29just coming out behind us here. We've got the anti-tanks. We've already seen the tanks.
11:36We've seen the missile charges. The flamethrowers as well are there. A lot going on.
11:43Shea Bose has been watching it just before us, though. He's got the best seat in the house.
11:48Shea, how did you find that? It's just coming to a wrap.
11:52It's absolutely remarkable. The ground literally here shaking. All the camera crews from the assembled
11:58media, the cameras literally shaking as the self-propelled artillery rolled through. The noise is
12:04absolutely immense, the power of these machines. And right now behind us has just passed the S-300,
12:11the S-400 air defence system, which is probably the best one in the world. And it's protected
12:16numerous countries. It's the envy of many Western countries, of course, because it's
12:22defended Moscow today. It's defending Russia's borders. And as we've heard, the Soviet Union,
12:29as you said, Ewan, was a springboard for huge innovation and technology from the T-34, which
12:36Georgi Zhukov himself had inputs into from the battlefield of how they needed to destroy the
12:42Panther, the Tiger. The T-34 was developed as a working, living creature that rolled off the
12:49boundary manufacturing line straight out onto the battlefield. And they led the armoured
12:56element, if you like, of this movement. Right now behind us, you can see the Yars. These are
13:02intercontinental missiles, nuclear-capable missiles. They have a range of over 12,000 kilometres.
13:09And these are part of Russia's nuclear deterrent. And these machines are absolutely vast in scale.
13:17You're just across a river and a bridge and a bit of a square. And we can see we've just had
13:24the flyby. We have got that tricolore streaking across. And my goodness, what a beautiful day for
13:30it. We were worried that the outbreak might actually be shown, because we've had a bit of
13:35a few Arctic winds in recent time. It's been a bit cloudy as well. But everything just went off
13:42without a hitch. We just had one of the most extraordinary shows, not just on the square,
13:48but you can still see. Shea was talking about the Yars missile that is literally going along
13:53the embankment now. And I understand that the embankment is usually absolutely empty of people.
13:58And now we have the equipment. And of course, the military band, you can see, striking up. And it plays
14:03possibly the most famous war song of all time. And it talks about victory, how long we waited for you,
14:12and you finally came. No one, not everyone, had a chance to see it. But we tried as hard as we could
14:19to make it come faster.
14:25Well, it's always a good day when we can welcome into any studio,
14:29but especially this studio, Brazilian journalist, Pepe Escobar, long-time foreign correspondent.
14:36I shouldn't give it away, but more than four decades now, sir. And it's been...
14:39I don't believe it, Pepe. No. But it's been great all these years to talk to you on the screen. Now we
14:45have you in person. You know, it's fantastic. A lot of dignitaries, world leaders here today,
14:50including Brazil's president, making the effort to cross halfway across the world to come here
14:55for it. What does that tell us? Well, I think we have to be very clear about the gravity of the moment.
15:05This was an extremely serious celebration of something extremely serious in the history of
15:12the 20th century. How to subdue fascism and Nazism. And obviously, the Soviet Union was up there.
15:22Whatever the West, the fragmented West says about it, the Soviet Union was up there.
15:28So we had this precise, meticulous, outstanding ceremony. Very, very serious, but at the same time,
15:38not ostentatious at all. You know, everything was quite simple in the end. And we had a great deal of the
15:46global South or global majority here in the square. That tells us everything we need to know about,
15:55I wouldn't say alliance, but this embrace between the two leaders of the world that is being built now,
16:03who were seated side by side, by the way, President Putin and President Xi Jinping,
16:10and the global South around it. I love the fact, for instance, when we had the contingents from the
16:16old Soviet space. That was fantastic to see all the stands, Azerbaijan as well. But we also saw Vietnam.
16:24And very few people make the connection between World War II or Great Patriotic War with Vietnam.
16:33So this sends a message. It's like the global South was sending itself a message with,
16:39of course, Russia and China in a privileged position. But don't take this as, you know,
16:48as well. We are building the new world and we won't let that happen again. This is the number one
16:56message. Fighting the Third Reich and winning now is replicated in historical terms with fighting against
17:07a budding Force Reich. And it pains all of us to say, especially all of us who have European backgrounds,
17:16that once again, it's in Europe. And it's not populations in selected European nations. No,
17:25it's an analytic bureaucracy in Brussels. It's the, I would say, Kafka-like mechanism of the European
17:33Union and European Commission. They are trying to install a variant of the Reich, a Fourth Reich,
17:39which we can describe very succinctly as liberal totalitarianism. So this was the message that came
17:47from here. That's why it's, at the same time, we are dazzled at the blinding beauty of the ceremony
17:53itself. But we need a moment of trying to understand the much bigger picture. And I'm sure
18:01those two sitting side by side, especially after their meeting yesterday, they knew exactly what's going on.
18:08You know, picking up on what you said, not just foreign dignitaries, but also the foreign military
18:14personnel who are going through. And you obviously mentioned Vietnam. I mean, Laos was there as well.
18:20I mean, we had Myanmar. I mean, a whole range of countries. Egypt, actually, the first ever
18:26from personnel from the African continent to walk across Red Squares, Kabul. So really a historic moment
18:31in that regard. But I was thinking, I was looking, think about ties that bind so much of what brings
18:38these nations together is obviously the Soviet Union, right? And the offer that it helped in their
18:45own battles against colonialism. Well, in Vietnam as well, Laos, and still to this day, trying to
18:51help with that unexploded mines as well and bombs. The Soviet legacy is strongly felt in those countries,
19:00isn't it? As much as it's disregarded in Europe. It is. And we see that in Vietnam, in Laos,
19:06in Cambodia, in a great deal of Southeast Asia, especially Southeast Asia that was conquered
19:12and conquered by the Brits. And then they had to fight a war that was not theirs in the end.
19:19And of course, under subjugation of the Japanese empire at the time, which after that decided to
19:26invest in all these economies. They're like, okay, we're going to pay our Japanese retribution.
19:32We're going to be like a car factory for you. Okay. These are distortions of history. But
19:39all across East Asia and Southeast Asia, not to mention in China. China considers the Japanese
19:49domination as, let's say, the last bit of the century of humiliation. The thing is,
19:56they were so strong mentally that they overcame it completely. And now China is a mega superpower.
20:03I just came back from Shanghai a few weeks ago. And when you see that in front of you,
20:08it's beyond astonishing. They are self-assured, self-confident. At the same time,
20:16they are not bragging about anything, but they say, look, we overcame all that. And now
20:21this is our drive to become the great power of the 21st century. So it was great to have them all here,
20:29in the square as well. And these, let's say, these little touches of having
20:35Africa as well, and South America, priceless. Even someone who didn't send a military delegation,
20:44but he was in the audience like in awe. Captain Ibrahim Traoré from Burkina Faso. He's probably the
20:53greatest indigenous, progressive African leader nowadays. And he was there. And he,
21:00you could see in his eyes that he understood perfectly, you know, the large symbolism of what
21:05was happening. They get that, don't they? They get the history, they understand, as Saskia said,
21:11the colonial links and overcoming that. But contrast that to Europe and Kaya Callas, the EU foreign policy
21:19chief, we can listen together, in fact, Pepe, to what she said.
21:26As we have the 9th of May tomorrow, which is a Europe day, then I want to stress that
21:32all those who truly, truly support peace cannot stand side by side by
21:40Putin, should be in Ukraine, rather than in Moscow tomorrow.
21:48Pepe, we'll get your thoughts on that in just a moment. But because the signal isn't the strongest,
21:53we're going to cross to another guest just for now. And that is George Galloway, veteran
22:01British MP. Mr. Galloway, you're just getting suited up there. I'm sure you can hear us.
22:07It's Saskia and Newton here from the other side of the river. You've been watching it all in Red
22:12Square, sir. How did you find it? Overwhelming, emotional, powerful, impressive, everything.
22:20I shed a tear, let me say that. It was an existential moment, the Second World War. To be or not to be
22:30was the question. And it was answered in the affirmative by the Red Army, by the USSR, more than
22:40by anybody else. Indeed, more than by everybody else put together. And that was represented here on Red
22:49Square. And it's just such a shame that the Great Wartime Alliance was not here present on the square.
22:59No president of the United States, no prime minister of the United Kingdom, that it was left to me,
23:08I think, the only political representative in Britain who was here. But I was representing the
23:16views and feelings of millions of people. You shouldn't confuse the poisonous words of EU leaders
23:27and the British prime minister for the countries that they represent all over Europe and certainly all
23:34over the United Kingdom. Millions of people recognize and cherish and salute the role of the Russian
23:45people and the people of the Soviet Union in the Second World War. If not for them, we'd be speaking,
23:52you and I in German, except we would not be because we'd be in a concentration camp somewhere.
24:04George, I also want to ask you sort of on a more, I suppose you could say, emotional level. This is
24:09obviously a world of tumult. It's a world of huge change. Values are changing. And I think people
24:17feel a bit lost. Do events like this help ground nations?
24:23I really feel that. I felt the the patriotism from foreigners, from me, from others,
24:32people who love Russia, who are not even Russia, but who recognize the significance of this country,
24:42the land of Tchaikovsky, the land of Pushkin, the land of Dostoevsky, the land of the Bolshoi,
24:50the land of the T-34 of the Soviet Red Army. This is a magnificent world historic country. And the more
25:02they try to freeze Russia out of the world, the taller Russia stands, and in the eyes and in the minds of
25:12free people everywhere. I mean, why was Captain Ibrahim Traore here today? He represents the hope of all
25:21Africa. All Africans are now looking to the captain. He is the iconic African leader. He was here. The leader of
25:31China was here. The leaders of the free countries of the earth who wish sovereignty for their own
25:40people are here because Russia represents national sovereignty and ideas of faith, of God, of family,
25:50of country. These ideas are largely lost in the Western world amongst the political class and their media
25:59orchestra. But they still exist here. And this is the new Rome for me.
26:11The fact that we didn't see Western leaders come over, George, in like they used to do here, stand
26:21shoulder to shoulder with the people, with their allies, who defeated Nazism in Europe. I get the
26:29feeling this year around that Russia doesn't really care because they're looking to the global south.
26:35They're looking to other nations and saying, you're the future and we're not going to politicize this event
26:41by grandstanding what Europe is not doing. We're looking to other parts of the world.
26:46Yes, I think that's right. But as a person who was a member of the British parliament over
26:55five decades, from the 1980s until last year, I'm really bitter that our country was not only not
27:05represented here, but was excluding Russia from commemorations, celebrations at every level,
27:14and was spitting on this parade. I'm really bitter about it. I mean, I should just be sad,
27:21but actually I'm sad and bitter about it. But the rest of the world was here. The majority of the
27:30population of the earth, of humanity, was either here or their hearts were here. Their eyes were
27:39on here. And that's ultimately, I suppose, what matters. The Western European countries are dooming
27:46themselves to irrelevance by their churlish, insulting, contemptuous attitude towards this 80th
27:55commemoration of the great victory.
28:04Well, George Galloway, British MP, politician, of course, giving us his thoughts.
28:09One of the few, of course, who get the invitation to stand on those historic cobblestones for that hour
28:17and a bit and see this year what feels like history really in the making, but of course, what is a giant
28:22tribute to history itself. George, as always, we appreciate you joining us.
28:31And in the meantime, they've just been spoiling us today. We're going to go back to Peppa. And just
28:38to remind you, we obviously had that soundbite from Kalas talking about the 9th of May and basically
28:44chastising people saying, you all should have gone to Kyiv. I mean, where do we start, Peppa?
28:52Are we allowed to laugh? Yes, today's a celebration. With our audience. We should laugh with our
28:58audience. This woman doesn't have the skills to run a grocery store and she represents 450 million
29:08Europeans. This in itself spells out how Brussels is run. She's there because she's a Russophobe.
29:17That's it. There's no other reason. She's not, it's beyond incompetent. And why she's there? Because of
29:25that person that I call the toxic Medusa. And I'm sure our audience will understand who I'm talking
29:30about. So nowadays we have this a budding pre force right gang, which more or less hijacked the structures
29:42of the European Union, which was never created as an European Union for the peoples of Europe,
29:49was created as a bureaucratic mechanism from the beginning. Of course, the Americans were there.
29:55Okay, this is what you're going to do. Nowadays, we...
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