Moscow — Countries across Europe marked the 80th anniversary on Thursday of VE, or Victory in Europe Day, celebrating the moment in 1945 at which fighting in World War II ended on the continent. But thanks to the time difference between Russia and Western Europe, Russia holds its Victory Day parade on May 9 every year, and CBS News was invited to witness the spectacle in Moscow on Friday.
The parade was months in the planning, and the preparations and security measures taken right ahead of it closed down central Moscow for several days before the event itself.
When Friday arrived, Moscow put on the show — an extravaganza of Russian troops from every branch of the military marching in unison, along with soldiers from the former Soviet Republics and a dizzying array of weaponry.
In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state news agency Sputnik, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin sits next to Chinese President Xi Jinping and other foreign leaders during the Victory Day military parade at Red Square, in central Moscow, May 9, 2025.
VYACHESLAV PROKOFYEV/POOL/AFP/Getty
There was even a guest contingent from China, Russia’s increasingly close ally. In the viewing stand, President Vladimir Putin sat right next to his guest of honor, Chinese President Xi Jinping. Brazil’s leader, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, was also in the crowd.
On one level, the parade was a celebration of Russia’s great victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
But it was also political theater of the highest order — with a weapons drive-by to remind the world that Russia is still a nuclear superpower.
On the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany, Russia commemorated the end of the Second World War in 1945 with a large military parade on Red Square, May 9, 2025.
Ulf Mauder/picture alliance/Getty
There were hugs and handshakes, also, with North Korean military officials, to show the Russian leader isn’t squeamish about his supporters.
In his speech, Putin alluded to Ukraine, acknowledging that Russia is going through a “difficult, watershed moment in its history,” but giving little in the way of specifics about what he calls his country’s “special military operation.”
“All of you on front lines, are our heroes,” he said, addressing Russian forces.
The display was meant to reinforce that message, and to reassure the Russian people that the pride and morale of their military has not been crushed by the grinding conflict on Russia’s western border.
Over the past three years, tens of thousands of Russian soldiers have been killed, and the fighting shows no signs of letting up.
In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state news agency Sputnik, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin leaves Red Square after the Victory Day military parade in central Moscow, May 9, 2025.
GAVRIIL GRIGOROV/POOL/AFP/Getty
So, the parade was a celebration of victory over an old enemy, but also a distraction from the fact that any military victory over the new enemy, looks a long way off.
No one may have been more relieved that the event concluded peacefully than President Putin himself, as Ukrainian attacks — even on Moscow — are a very real threat. Ukrainian attack drones forced airports around the Russian capital to close this week.
Elizabeth Palmer is CBS News’ senior foreign correspondent. She is based in the CBS News London Bureau, and reports on major events across Europe and the Middle East. Palmer was previously based in Tokyo, and before that in Moscow, for CBS News.
New Delhi — A deadly terrorist attack in Indian-administered Kashmir’s picturesque Pahalgam area in April has brought India and Pakistan once again to the brink of war. The nuclear armed South Asian neighbors have attacked each other this week with missiles and drones in a sudden flare-up of a decades-old feud that’s being watched with concern by leaders around the world.
The bitter rivals have fought three wars over Kashmir in the past, and once again they’re warning each other against any moves that could escalate the tension — and vowing to respond in kind to any such moves with tough military action.
After a week of intense clashes, air raid sirens blared in a couple Indian cities near the Pakistani border on Friday and authorities asked people to remain indoors. Officials said a woman was killed and four men injured in alleged Pakistani cross-border fire in the Kashmiri town of Uri, while all major airports and the capital city of Delhi were on high alert, with some schools shut and major landmarks evacuated.
Pakistani officials have accused India of killing at least 36 people this week, including 26 it says died in a Tuesday night missile attack on multiple locations, which Islamabad labeled an “act of war.” India called the strikes a measured response to the April terrorist attack, claiming it had killed 100 terrorists at camps and other sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
An Indian Army vehicle moves through a street in Uri, in Indian-administered Kashmir, as tension between India and Pakistan rises May 8, 2025.
Faisal Khan/Anadolu/Getty
The rivalry between the two countries goes back decades, and at the heart of the dispute lies the stunning mountainous region of Kashmir.
The Kashmir conflict explained
Kashmir is a Himalayan region dotted with snow-capped mountains, pristine lakes, and beautiful meadows. It was previously one of the many “princely states” of India, ruled by so-called maharajas, before India gained independence from British rule in August 1947.
That independence, however, has never been a simple matter. As it ceded its colonial power, Britain partitioned India into two nations: Hindu-majority India, and Muslim-majority Pakistan.
The migration of Hindus from the newly carved out Pakistan into India, and of Muslims from India into Pakistan, was marred by massacres and widespread sectarian violence. It is widely considered the deadliest partitioning of a nation in contemporary history.
At the time of partition, Kashmir was a Muslim-majority princely state, and its Hindu Maharaja Hari Singh, chose to remain independent of the two newly defined nations. But in October 1947, when tribesmen from Pakistan invaded Kashmir, the Maharaja sought India’s help.
India agreed to come to his assistance, but only if Singh would let India claim dominion over Kashmir as a precondition. The Maharaja agreed.
India sent its army to Kashmir, which drove out the Pakistani tribesmen and, for all intents and purposes, Kashmir became a semi-autonomous part of India.
India and Pakistan’s wars over Kashmir
Pakistan refused to recognize Kashmir’s accession to India, dismissing it as a fraud. The standoff led the two nations into their first war that same year, and it endured into 1948.
India asked the United Nations to intervene. The U.N. recommended that, after the full demilitarization of the region by both armies, a vote be held by Kashmir’s residents to determine its future.
That was never achieved, and in 1949, India and Pakistan signed a ceasefire agreement that divided hotly-contested Kashmir into two parts.
Both nations claim all of Kashmir as their own territory, but each controls only part of it. Another, northeastern portion of the region is administered by China, which has long been a point of friction between Delhi and Beijing.
In 1965, the tension over the region between India and Pakistan again erupted into a full-scale war. Thousands of people were killed on both sides. About seven years later, an agreement was signed that formally established a Line of Control (LoC) dividing Kashmir, which still serves as the de-facto border between the two rivals.
In 1989, a heavily armed pro-independence insurgency took root in Indian-administered Kashmir, launching deadly attacks against Indian forces. India has long accused Pakistan of training, arming and backing those militants — a charge Pakistan flatly denies.
The three-decade insurgency has left tens of thousands of people dead.
Damage to a mosque is seen after Indian strikes in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, May 7, 2025.
Zubair Abbasi/Middle East Images/Middle East Images/AFP
Pakistan has consistently denied the allegations that it supports Kashmiri separatists.
In 1999, the two countries again engaged in a brief war, fought along the LoC in northern Kashmir.
As the insurgency continued, India maintained a heavy military presence in Kashmir, making it one of the most militarized zones in the world. Indian forces have killed hundreds of separatists every year in regular shootouts across and around the LoC, but they have not managed to stop the militants’ attacks.
In 2016, gunmen whom India said were based in Pakistan killed 19 Indian soldiers in an attack on the town of Uri. India responded by launching what it called “surgical strikes” across the LoC, targeting alleged militant bases. Pakistan denied any Indian strikes on its territory.
In 2019, another attack blamed on alleged Pakistani gunmen, on an Indian military convoy in Kashmir’s Pulwama area, killed more than 40 paramilitary forces.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, furious over the attack, ordered airstrikes against Pakistan, sparking retaliatory raids and an aerial dogfight in which one Indian fighter jet was downed.
A civilian, who according to local media was injured in a cross-border shelling near the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan in Poonch sector, is rushed to a hospital in Jammu, in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, April 1, 2019.
REUTERS
Later that year, India’s federal government, under Modi, revoked Kashmir’s special status, lifting the partial autonomy it had enjoyed since 1947, which granted the region its own constitution and major decision-making powers.
Modi’s government faced criticism for the way it revoked Kashmir’s autonomy. A day before his government tabled and passed the bill in parliament, Indian forces launched a major crackdown in Kashmir. Internet, television and phone lines were shut down, and civilians were ordered to remain indoors. Dozens of people, including local politicians, were placed under house arrest as India flew more paramilitary forces into the region to maintain a security and information lockdown. Some of those restrictions remained in place for more than two years.
Pakistan objected to the move and vowed to “exercise all possible options to counter the illegal steps.”
Over the following years, as India continued to bolster its security presence in the region, militancy waned and tourism returned to Kashmir. Modi’s government took credit for transforming the region from a hotspot for terrorism, into a hotspot for tourism.
But last month’s terrorist attack on Indian tourists in Pahalgam changed everything. It has once again put the two nations on a war footing – and the world on edge over the risk of another major conflict breaking out in already-tumultuous times, and between two nations with a long history of animosity, and nuclear weapons.
Moscow — Preparations were well underway Thursday in Moscow for the annual “Victory Day” parade. The huge celebrations mark the former Soviet Union’s role in defeating Nazi Germany in World War II, 80 years ago this year.
Dozens of world leaders invited by President Vladimir Putin have gathered in Moscow for the events, and the fact that our CBS News team was allowed in to witness it all shows how much things have changed in just 100 days. U.S. relations with Russia under President Trump have thawed, and American media have been invited in to see the grand spectacle of the Victory Day commemorations.
Thursday brought a dress rehearsal for the main event, a lavish military parade set to take place on May 9, the day on which Russia celebrates its historic victory over the Nazis. Due to the time difference between Russia and the Western European nations where the German surrender was cemented, the U.S. and its European allies mark the Victory in Europe on May 8 every year — the day on which Adolf Hitler’s forces capitulated to the Allies in 1945, ending World War II on the continent.
Putin’s guest of honor this year, China’s President Xi Jinping, was already in town on Thursday. He’s the most powerful of several world leaders who have come to show that, despite international sanctions and widespread condemnation of Putin’s so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine, the Russian leader does have friends.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and China’s President Xi Jinping arrive for talks at the Kremlin in Moscow, May 8, 2025.
PAVEL BEDNYAKOV/POOL/AFP/Getty
According to China’s state-run media, the two leaders took advantage of Xi’s visit to sign more than 20 “bilateral cooperation documents,” covering issues including “global strategic stability, maintaining the authority of international law” and biosecurity. The two countries have emphasized their deepening ties for several years, with the Kremlin declaring in 2022 that Russia and China would strive to create a new “democratic world order.“
While the theme of the party in Moscow this week is an 80-year-old victory, fighting still rages in Ukraine, claiming Russian lives, and any victory in the contemporary conflict looks a long way off.
Ukrainians are dying, too — both soldiers and, this week, more civilians whom Ukrainian officials say were killed in a Russian drone and missile strike.
CBS News asked a group of Russian cheerleaders preparing for the events in Moscow what they hoped for at this stage in the Ukraine conflict, and in particular, about President Trump’s diplomatic push for a ceasefire, something their own president has thus far declined to agree to.
“I think it’s a great deal to stop the war,” said Mikael.
“I agree it’s important for everybody, for everyone — for our kids, young people,” said Elena.
Russian law enforcement officers patrol Red Square, which was closed ahead of celebrations for Victory Day, marking the 80th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, in central Moscow, May 8, 2025.
Maxim Shemetov/REUTERS
It’s one thing to want peace, however, and quite another to get it.
President Putin declared more than a week ago that Russia would observe a three-day ceasefire in Ukraine to mark Victory Day, starting on Thursday. But even if Russian attacks do stop over the weekend, people on both sides of the border know the fighting will start again on Monday.
Elizabeth Palmer is CBS News’ senior foreign correspondent. She is based in the CBS News London Bureau, and reports on major events across Europe and the Middle East. Palmer was previously based in Tokyo, and before that in Moscow, for CBS News.
Ukraine said Russia was attacking across the front line on Thursday, calling Russian President Vladimir Putin’s order for a three-day truce, which he said would take effect Thursday morning, a “farce.”
The Russian army said it was responding to Ukrainian attacks but observing the truce, which Putin unilaterally ordered to coincide with a massive parade in Moscow to mark Victory Day, which Russia observes ever May 9 to commemorate the Soviet Union’s 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany’s invading forces.
Putin’s guest of honor this year, China’s President Xi Jinping, was already in Moscow Thursday ahead of the Victory Day events. He’s the most powerful of several world leaders attending to show that, despite international sanctions and widespread condemnation of Putin’s so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine, the Russian leader does have friends.
“Predictably, Putin’s ‘Parade ceasefire’ proves to be a farce,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said Thursday. “Russian forces continue to attack across the entire front line. From midnight to midday, Russia carried out 734 ceasefire violations and 63 assault operations.”
Ukraine would respond and share all information with its allies, Sybiga said.
Though Kyiv never agreed to the three-day truce, Russia accused Ukraine of violating it.
“The Russian Armed Forces are strictly observing the ceasefire. This includes no strikes by aircraft, missile forces, artillery or unmanned aerial vehicles,” Russia’s defense ministry said during a briefing. “Despite the announcement of the ceasefire, Ukrainian army units have not ceased hostilities against Russian troops.”
Nazar, 33, a Ukrainian serviceman of the 72nd Chorni Zaporozhtsi Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, prepares first-person view (FPV) drones to launch toward Russian troops, during a unilaterally proposed three-day ceasefire declared by Russia, near the front line in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, May 8, 2025.
Alina Smutko/REUTERS
Ukraine’s air force earlier reported Russian guided bomb strikes on the northern region of Sumy.
“No missile attacks or attack drones were recorded in Ukrainian airspace. However, during the night, the enemy intensified tactical aviation strikes using guided aerial bombs in the Sumy region,” the air force said, after reporting several launches in the morning.
Earlier in the day, Russia struck a residential area near the town of Bilopillya, close to the border between Sumy and Russia’s Kursk region, Ukraine’s emergency services said.
New Delhi — Pakistani authorities accused India on Thursday of a “serious provocation” as the nuclear-armed neighbors’ forces clashed in the disputed Kashmir region weeks after a terror attack on Indian tourists sparked sudden cross-border crisis.
Pakistani officials said India launched an attack with at least 13 drones early Thursday morning, all but one of which they said were shot down by the country’s own military.
“India has undertaken yet another blatant military act of aggression against Pakistan by sending Harop drones at multiple locations,” Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, the Pakistani Army spokesman, said at a press briefing on Thursday, adding that the Indian attack, “continues, and the armed forces are on high degree of alert and neutralizing them as we speak.”
Security personnel cordon off a street near a site after an alleged drone was shot down in Lahore on May 8, 2025.
MURTAZ ALI/AFP/Getty
Chaudhry said Pakistan’s armed forces managed to “neutralize” 12 drones at various locations, including Lahore, Gujrawala, Chakwal, Rawalpindi, and one near Karachi.
“One drone, however, managed to engage a military target near Lahore partially,” Chaudhry said, adding that it had killed one civilian and wounded four Pakistani soldiers.
India did not immediately react to Pakistan’s claim about the drone attack, which came a day after India hit nine locations inside Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir with missiles. Pakistan said at least 26 people were killed in that missile attack, which it labeled an “act of war,” and that five others died in ongoing cross-border military clashes along the Line of Control that divides Indian and Pakistani-administered portions of Kashmir.
India launched rare national preparedness exercises on Wednesday, bracing for Pakistani retaliation to the missile attack, which the nation’s leaders have said they will take at a time and in a manner of their choosing.
