MOSCOW — Putting to one side Russia’s unfinished battle against the coronavirus, President Vladimir V. Putin on Wednesday celebrated his country’s victory 75 years ago against Nazi Germany, presiding over an enormous military parade through Red Square that featured thousands of soldiers marching shoulder-to-shoulder without face masks.
The parade, the largest of several celebrations taking place nationwide, was originally scheduled for May 9, a joyous annual holiday known as Victory Day, but was delayed for six weeks by the coronavirus pandemic. The outbreak continues to grow in Russia — the world’s third hardest hit country, with more than 600,000 cases — but at a slightly slower pace than before.
Aging veterans in their 80s and 90s joined Mr. Putin on the reviewing stand, nearly all of them without masks, to watch 14,000 troops march in tight formation to stirring martial music. Tanks, missiles and other military equipment then trundled through the square in front of the Kremlin, followed by a flyover by strategic bombers, fighter jets and helicopters.
Mr. Putin, who has spent most of the past three months cooped up at his country residence, is hoping that the Moscow parade, one of dozens held across the country on Wednesday, will help lift the gloom that has settled over his rule in recent weeks. The crisis has sent his approval rating to its lowest level since he came to power 20 years ago.
Having staked so much of his previous popularity on Russia’s re-emergence as a major global power, Mr. Putin on Wednesday basked in the glory of Russia’s immense role in the defeat of Hitler’s Germany and the liberation of Europe during World War II.
“It is impossible to even imagine what would have happened to the world had it not been for the Red Army that stood up to defend it” against fascism, he said in a speech at the start of the parade.
Few foreign leaders, however, were on hand to hear his message. European leaders all stayed away, except for the president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic. President Emmanuel Macron of France and others had planned to attend the previously planned parade in May but skipped the rescheduled event. Leaders from 10 former Soviet republics were also in attendance.
China and India, vying for Russia’s support after recent clashes between their armies in a remote border region, sent senior officials and also soldiers, who took part in the parade. China sent the largest foreign contingent.
The military parades began shortly after midnight Moscow time on Tuesday evening in Kamchatka on the Pacific Ocean and then rolled across the country’s 11 time zones. As the main parade was winding down in Moscow, troops began marching in Kaliningrad, a former German territory known as East Prussia that was seized by the Soviet Union after Hitler’s defeat.
