Only 8,000 military personnel marched past onlookers this year — down from 11,000 in 2022 and 14,000 in 2020. It was likely the smallest display since 2008, the year Putin revived the classic Victory Day parade. “Absent this year were other military vehicles, including BMP-3s and BMP-2s, as well as armored personnel carriers such as BTR-MDM, BMD-4M, and Boomerangs,” Newsweek reported. All the Buk surface-to-air missile systems were gone. So, too, were some of the most familiar motorized rifle brigades.

Last year, attendees were treated to an aerial flyby consisting of 77 fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters. Today, the usual airshow was abruptly canceled without explanation. The customary cavalcade of tanks was nowhere to be found. Gone were the T-72s, T-90s, and T-14 Armatas. In its place, Moscow could only marshal one decrepit, pre-war T-34 — a museum piece grimly illustrative of Russia’s diminished status as a great power. …

A rational proponent of the notion that Russia’s victory in Ukraine is a foregone conclusion might look upon this mortifying display and reassess.

[That will only matter if Putin’s oligarchs take stock and reassess his leadership. He has demolished the Russian military, especially its deterrence factor in ground combat, only to gain nothing more than Russia had controlled before the invasion of Ukraine. At some point, the tsar with no clothes will get exposed … and disposed. — Ed]