On Victory Day, Putin defends war on Ukraine as fight against ?Nazis?

Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to justify his contentious war against Ukraine during a huge Victory Day parade on Monday, again falsely calling Ukrainians “Nazis” and insisting without evidence that Kyiv was planning to build nuclear weapons.As Russia celebrated its most emotional holiday commemorating the Nazi defeat in World War II, Putin appeared in Moscow’s Red Square to invoke pride over the Soviet role in that cause and cast the invasion of Ukraine as a comparable effort. And he did not declare the “special military operation” to be a “war” or announce a general or partial mobilization to rebuild depleted Russian forces, as some had feared.Instead, Victory Day was observed in a more somber and subdued way in Red Square and across parts of Ukraine.The governor of Kharkiv — Ukraine’s second-most-populous city, where Ukrainian troops have been pushing back Russian battalions — said there was less shelling Monday than any day since the conflict began 75 days ago. White House press secretary Jen Psaki accused Putin — who in his speech also claimed without evidence that Kyiv was planning to build nuclear weapons — of “perverting history.” A senior U.S. defense official said intelligence reports indicate that some middle-rank Russian military officers in Ukraine are disobeying their commanders, while others are not acting with the “alacrity” that would be expected.Russian forces have continued to struggle in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region in the face of stiff resistance, said the senior official, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Pentagon. In his Victory Day address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said 8 million Ukrainians perished in the war — about 20 percent of the population at the time.Zelensky likened Putin to Adolf Hitler, saying the Russian leader was “following Nazi philosophy, copying everything they did.” He predicted Ukraine would prevail in the current conflict.“Very soon there will be two Victory Days in Ukraine,” he said.