Putin's Victory Day parades expose reliance on Iran and North Korea

Yahoo

09-05-2025

They came in behind the T-80 tanks and the Yars nuclear missiles. They were not much to look at; spindly, winged things carted on the back of a few lorries.
But drones were included in Moscow's Victory Day parade for the first time on Friday, capping their rise to become the most deadly weapon on the battlefields of Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin watched them roll past alongside Xi Jinping, the president of China, who has facilitated the supply of technology needed for Russia's unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) industry.
Unlike the subdued parades of recent years, Putin churned out thousands of troops and dozens of tanks, while nuclear-capable ballistic missile launchers crawled over Red Square's cobblestones.
The commemorations to mark the 80th anniversary of the USSR's triumph over Nazi Germany were not just about honouring the estimated 27 million Soviets who died in the Second World War. They were part of a carefully co-ordinated display of Moscow's supposed military might.
Drones have revolutionised warfare, and state TV commentators lauded their effectiveness on the battlefield as they were lugged past the Kremlin.
But behind the pomp and ceremony, analysts said the event served as a reminder of how much the Kremlin has come to rely on foreign backers to prop up its war machine.
The Kremlin's much-vaunted drones were designed by Iran, while Putin embraced North Korean generals in thanks for their help in expelling Ukrainian forces from Kursk.
Credit: Reuters
China too, whose leader sat shoulder-to-shoulder with Putin, has long been accused of covertly sending weapon components for Russia to use in Ukraine.
'In previous years and decades, it would have been inconceivable to showcase the extent to which Russia is dependent on other countries for military support and sourcing equipment,' said Keir Giles, a Russian military expert at Chatham House and author of Who Will Defend Europe?
'On one hand, Russia wants to demonstrate it is not isolated, and is supported by a military and political coalition in challenging the West,' he told The Telegraph.
'On the other, it represents a normalisation of the way Russia's idea of itself as a great power that does not need allies has now been torpedoed.'
Up to 11,000 Russian troops took part in the parade, including 1,500 veterans of the 'Special Military Operation' – Russia's name for the war in Ukraine.
Credit: Reuters
Soldiers from 13 so-called 'friendly countries' – including China, Vietnam, Egypt and Myanmar, took part – also took part, which was Putin's way of showing off global clout amid the West's efforts to isolate Moscow.
The Lancet, Geran-2, Orlan-10 and Orlan-30 were among the drones that were shown off as they perched on top of their launchers, facing the sky.
Orlan drones are widely used for reconnaissance and target-selection missions. Zala Lancet drones focus on surveillance and precision attacks and are responsible for destroying numerous Ukrainian tanks, a jet and other heavy equipment.
The Geran-2 is a domestically-produced clone of Iran's Shahed-136 UAVs, a suicide drone that was widely used to attack Ukraine before Russia began manufacturing its own variants.
The latest version, the Geran-3, is purported to use a turbojet engine that can power it to speeds of around 350mph with a range of 1,553 miles. That is a significant step-up on previous iterations – but little has been seen of them on the ground.
In 2024, Ukrainian factories churned out some 2 million unmanned aerial vehicles, ratcheting up production at back-breaking speeds. Its target for 2025 is 4.5 million.
The drones Ukraine produces are reputed to be better than their Russian counterparts: harder, more lethal and better able to resist electronic warfare jamming.
But Moscow is catching up, at least in terms of brute force. Russia claims it can churn out 4,000 every day and is developing increasingly sophisticated – and fast – long-range drones.
'The battlefield in Ukraine is the place where military confrontation is evolving more rapidly than anywhere in the world,' said Mr Giles.
The fact this evolution, particularly through UAVs, is on full display in Moscow's military parade shows the extent to which 'this new nature of warfare has been internalised and embraced by the Russian system'.
During the Victory Day parades in 2023 and 2024, a solitary Second World War-era T-34 tank rolled across the Red Square.
This year, a fleet of 180 tanks and armoured vehicles were paraded, up from just 60 in 2024.
These included nine historic T-34s, columns of Soviet-era T-72s and T-80s, as well as more modern T-90s, the most advanced tank deployed en masse to Ukraine.
The mechanised column also included Tigr armoured vehicles and BMP-2 and BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles.
Russia is reported to have lost more than 3,000 tanks in Ukraine, while Kyiv puts the figure at 10,000 with another 22,000 armoured vehicles lost.
Faced with staggering losses, largely owing to the prevalence of explosive-loaded drones, Moscow sent ageing models onto the battlefield and dramatically reduced their uses in assaults.
Earlier this year, analysts had noted that despite Russia churning out new tanks and armoured vehicles at a rate unmatched by the West, the newly-available vehicles were not being sent to Ukraine.
'The conclusion was that they were being held back for Russia's next attack against a neighbour, potentially a Nato member state,' said Mr Giles.
'But of course that reserve of presentable vehicles also allows Russia to indulge in vanity projects like its May 9 parade,' he added.
The Ministry of Defence estimated last year that Russia had the capacity to produce 100 main battle tanks per month.
As a reminder of Russia's nuclear might, huge Rs-24 Yars nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile launchers were wheeled out.
The Yars ICBM is a thermonuclear missile that can be armed with four warheads that are individually programmed to strike different targets with a range of 12,000km.
They were followed by Iskander ballistic missiles, Tornado-S multiple rocket launchers and Tosochka heavy flamethrower systems and advanced artillery weapons including Msta-S howitzers, Giatsint-K and Malva artillery guns – which have all been used against Ukraine.
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