Russia Had Just One Tank at Its Victory Day Parade

A single Soviet-era tank rolled across Moscow's Red Square during a Victory Day parade in the capital on Tuesday, live broadcast footage of the event showed.

Victory Day, Moscow's annual commemoration Nazi Germany's defeat during World War II—known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War—is typically marked with President Vladimir Putin addressing crowds and a military parade at the Red Square. The Russian leader typically uses the day of national celebration to show off the country's military power.

But this year, more than 14 months into Putin's war against neighboring country Ukraine, the military parade was notably scaled back, with just one tank taking part in the procession—an old Soviet T-34—amid reports that Russia has a shortage of tanks and tank crews.

The parade saw Yars, S-400 and Iskander-M missile systems pass through the Red Square, where thousands of people were in attendance. The traditional airborne part of the Victory Day Parade was also canceled.

Tuesday's Victory Day parade was pared back compared to 2022's event, which came over two months into the war and was also considerably curtailed in contrast to previous years.

"This parade was astonishingly low-level, and this is its significance," Sergej Sumlenny, an Eastern Europe expert, told Newsweek.

Sumlenny said he believed Russia would either organize a low-scale parade, but still with some equipment, or cancel it out of "security concerns."

"They could have found a dozen of tanks and artillery pieces," he said. "They did have a very different thing after all: a wheeled-cars parade, with the only one tank, the shortest of all (11 minutes)."

Sumlenny said this was "a self-humiliation" for the Russians. "It will be certainly discussed among the people," he said.

Inna Sovsun, a member of Ukraine's parliament, commented on Russia's Victory Day parade, sharing a short video on Twitter of the single tank.

"Russia's Victory Day parade, showcasing their impressive military prowess with...a tank from the Cold War times? Second biggest army in the world, they said?" Sovsun tweeted.

Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine's minister of internal affairs, said the parade in Moscow didn't have any modern tanks, infantry fighting vehicles or aviation.

"It was one of the smallest in Russian history, taking less than 10 minutes," he tweeted.

Victory Day had also been scaled back nationwide, with at least 24 cities canceling parades to mark the day. Some regional leaders cited "security concerns" for scrapping the events.

Last week, the Russian government accused Ukraine of carrying out a "planned terrorist act" and an attempt on Putin's life, saying two Ukrainian drones had crashed into the leader's Kremlin residence in Moscow. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has denied any involvement, saying his country didn't possess weapons capable of such strikes.

Sumlenny said he sees some logic behind having a pared-back military parade in Moscow this year.

"They want to sell a narrative 'we don't want to invest into a show when our army is fighting hard'...but this means that the Kremlin is concerned by the fact that they know the population is unhappy with high price of war," he said.

"This way of logic, if I am right. is very significant and let us hope, Russia is about to crack on this war," Sumlenny added.

Newsweek has contacted Russia's Defense Ministry via email for comment.

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