Vladimir Putin honours dead as Victory Day parade speech hacked

Vladimir Putin’s long-anticipated speech in front of thousands of troops today was hijacked in the worst possible way for the Russian leader.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s big day was interrupted by hackers who hijacked his speech to thousands of troops in Red Square and millions of Russians at home to declare they all have “blood on their hands”.

Putin made a rare public appearance in Moscow as the country celebrated Victory Day, which marks the 1945 victory over Nazi Germany.

The leader was met with a show of military might, including thousands of Russian soldiers.

But hackers managed to intercept transmissions to various Russian channels and inserted a caption over hacked screens, The Sun reports.

The message read: “The blood of thousands of Ukrainians and hundreds of their children is on your hands. TV and the authorities lie. No to war.”

Vladimir Putin's speech was hacked and viewers were shown a message that declared Russians have blood on their hands.

Today, teletexts in #Russia state: "You have blood on your hands. Thousands of #Ukrainians and hundreds of their children have been killed. TV and the authorities lie. No to war". pic.twitter.com/jgXdRIzyGY

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) May 9, 2022

"You have the blood of thousands of Ukrainians and hundreds of their murdered children on your hands. TV and the authorities lie. «No» to War" - this anti-war inscription appeared on Russians' Smart TV channels and programs on the night and morning of May 9. pic.twitter.com/2NixkJDRfQ

— Iuliia Mendel (@IuliiaMendel) May 9, 2022

Putin would go on to make an astonishing claim to troops in the city’s Red Square.

During a short speech, he drew parallels between the war against Adolf Hitler’s army in WWII and the invasion in Ukraine.

He declared that the war was necessary because Western forces were “preparing for the invasion of our land, including Crimea”.

Putin called it an “absolutely unacceptable threat” and said Russian forces in Ukraine were continuing the battle against Nazism, but that it was important “to do everything so that the horror of a global war does not happen again”.

“You are fighting for your Motherland, its future,” he told troops at the annual parade before taking a moment to acknowledge the thousands of Russians who have died in the conflict.

“The death of every soldier and officer is painful for us. The state will do everything to take care of these families,” he said.

He concluded his speech with: “For Russia, for victory, hurrah!”

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives for the Victory Day military parade at Red Square in central Moscow on May 9, 2022. Picture: Kirill Kudryavtsev / AFP

The reference to Nazis is, of course, not a new one. It was the justification Putin used when he first sent forces across the border into Ukraine.

In a speech on February 24, the Russian leader said his military would protect people from “bullying and genocide … for the last eight years … and for this will we will strive for the demilitarisation and denazification of Ukraine.”

Independent media have uncovered no evidence of genocide against Russian speakers in Ukraine.

The Guardian’s Moscow correspondent Andrew Roth wrote on Twitter that Putin made no mention of atrocities in Ukraine during Monday’s speech.

“Another notable omission from Putin’s speech was no attempt to spin Russian victories from the war, no mention of Mariupol at all or claims that Russia had defeated Ukraine’s fighting potential, nothing that could be vaguely construed as ‘mission accomplished’,” he wrote.

A screen shows Russian President Vladimir Putin giving a speech as servicemen line up on Red Square during the Victory Day military parade. Picture: Kirill Kudryavtsev / AFP

Russia’s celebration comes as Ukraine reels from a bombing that killed 60 people at a school sheltering civilians.

As huge missiles are towed through Red Square, civilians in Ukraine continue to bear the brunt of the bloodshed.

The attack on the school in the eastern village of Bilogorivka contributed to one of the highest one-day tolls since Moscow’s forces invaded more than two months ago.

Lugansk region governor Sergiy Gaiday said rescuers were searching for survivors in the debris left by the Russian attack on the school there, though the outlook was bleak.

“Bombs fell on the school,” he said on Telegram, “and unfortunately it was completely destroyed.”

— with AFP