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Russia May Cancel May 9 Victory Day Parades Over Ukrainian Missile Threat
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Russian authorities are considering canceling the traditional May 9 Victory Day parades in Moscow and St. Petersburg due to the alleged threat posed by Ukraine’s new long-range missiles, The Moscow Times reported on April 8.
Pro-war Russian military bloggers have raised alarms about the vulnerability of the high-profile events. Speaking on the Russian state propaganda “Solovyov LIVE” show, prominent pro-war blogger Ilya Tumanov highlighted the disastrous optics of an air raid siren interrupting the parade on Red Square.
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“Imagine, 'Parade, attention! '—and a missile warning is announced. What will happen on the square and around it? It will be a significant blow in media terms, even if nothing hits,” Tumanov stated. According to the blogger, the aerial portion of the parade has already been scrapped.
Furthermore, a scheduled ground rehearsal on April 5 was abruptly halted, with troops ordered to return to their permanent deployment points “until further notice,” prompting speculation that the event could be postponed. When questioned about the potential cancellation, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov offered an evasive response, stating merely, “We are preparing for the celebration of Victory Day.”
The anxiety stems from Ukraine’s recently unveiled long-range strike capabilities, specifically the “Flamingo” cruise missile. Introduced last August, the Flamingo boasts a staggering range of 3,000 kilometers and carries a one-ton warhead—making Moscow, which sits just 450 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, an easy target, The Moscow Times wrote.
The missile has already proven highly effective, successfully striking Russia’s largest missile plant in the Perm region in February and a major explosives factory in the Samara region in March. Additionally, Ukraine is developing the FP-9 ballistic missile, which has an 850-kilometer range and an 800-kilogram warhead.
Scheduled to begin testing this summer, the FP-9's high speed and flight altitude will make it exceptionally difficult for Russian air defenses to intercept.
Since the launch of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia’s once-grandiose May 9 military parades—dedicated to celebrating the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II—have been dramatically scaled back. In 2022 and 2023, the aerial portions were canceled, and modern armor largely vanished, famously leaving only a single World War II-era T-34 tank to roll across Red Square in 2023.
While the 2024 and 2025 parades saw a slight increase in participation, they still fell significantly short of pre-war displays, reflecting the heavy toll the war has taken on the Russian stockpiles, according to The Moscow Times.
The potential cancellation of the May 9 parades is a direct consequence of Ukraine’s rapidly expanding domestic missile and drone programs. By successfully developing and deploying long-range weapons like the Flamingo cruise missile, Kyiv has effectively erased the illusion of safety deep within Russian territory.
Recent strikes on the Morozov Explosives Plant and major chemical facilities in the Samara region demonstrate that Ukraine can now systematically target the Kremlin’s military-industrial complex hundreds of kilometers from the border. This growing capability not only disrupts Russia’s physical war machine but also forces Moscow to scale back critical propaganda events, proving that the psychological and logistical impacts of the war have firmly reached the Russian capital.
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