Moscow and Kyiv evoke memories of Nazi Germany for very different ends

In both Ukraine and Russia, May 9 is markedas the day Nazi Germany was defeated in the Second World War.

This year, the patriotic occasionwas celebrated in very different ways in the two countries' capitals.

In Kyiv unlike Moscow there was no Victory Day parade. Instead, Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelensky posted to social media a video of himself walking down one of the emptycommercial streets of the city.

He walked past tank barriers and sandbags as the video flashed back to previous, peaceful holidays and parades with a much less haggard-looking Zelensky watching a flypast.

"We are proud of our ancestors who, together with other nations in the anti-Hitler coalition, defeated Nazism," said Zelensky, who went on to name several Ukrainian cities now under Russian occupation or assault where the Germans were defeated over seven decades ago.

"They expelled the Nazis from all over Ukraine, but the cities I named are especially inspiring us today. They give us faith that we will drive the occupiers out of our own land for sure.

"This is not a war of two armies. This is a war of two worldviews. We are free people who go our own way."

The scene in Moscow wasvery differenton Monday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told a huge military parade in Moscow's Red Square that Russian troops are in eastern Ukraine to "defend the motherland."

He insisted theinvasion of Ukraine (which he continues to calla "special military operation")was necessary and had been provoked by the West.

There had been speculation Putin would use the event to make a major announcement about Russia's next steps in its war on Ukraine. Hedidn't. Instead, he used his speechto again insist that Russia acted in self-defence.

"The danger was rising," Putinsaid, arguingthat "Russia has pre-emptively repulsed an aggression" through a military campaign that was"forced, timely and the only correct decision by a sovereign, powerful and independent country."

He repeatedly claimed that Ukraine was planning to attack Russia somethingKyiv has flatly denied. The United Nations has overwhelmingly condemned Russia'sinvasion and has calledrepeatedly for Russian troops to withdraw.

Russia has suffered significant losses of soldiers and equipment in Ukraine. Many believedPutin would use his May 9 speech to order ageneral mobilization.

Dominque Arel,chair of Ukrainianstudies at the University of Ottawa, said he wonderswhat a general mobilization order could have accomplished.

"Military experts are telling us[there's] no guarantee that it would actually strengthen the Russian army, because here we're talking about conscripts that are poorly trained. Reserves, also very poorly trained," he said.

All across eastern Ukraine, air raid sirens went off overnight and throughout the day. Four missile strikes were reported in the Odesa region. Fierce fighting was reported also in the area of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, the last holdout for besiegedUkrainian forces in the ruined city.