By Olha Hembik | 2026-05-08

For the first time in 19 years, no tanks will roll across Red Square on May 9. Russia's Victory Day parade, once a showcase of military power choreographed for the world, will have no military equipment at all.

The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) announced April 28 that vehicles were cut "due to the current operational situation." What that phrase conceals is no mystery: four years of grinding war in Ukraine have hollowed out the arsenal.

The last equipment-free parade was in 2007. At its peak in 2015, the event featured 194 units of wheeled and tracked vehicles, 140 aircraft and helicopters, and the public debuts of the T-14 Armata tank and the Koalitsiya self-propelled artillery system. By 2024, that number had fallen to 61 vehicles and 15 aircraft. This year: zero.

Nothing left to show

The MoD says the parade will honor servicemen "performing tasks in the special military operation zone," with a flypast by aerobatic teams painting the sky in the colors of the Russian tricolor. Suvorov Military and Nakhimov Naval school cadets will also be absent from the marching columns.

Mikhail Strelnikov, founder of the Museum of Victory Over Despotism in Poland, said the decision had been telegraphed for weeks. Since early April, the telltale road markings failed to appear on Moscow streets, squares went unprepared, and no rehearsals took place.

"It was already clear that while some troops might limp across Red Square, there would be no vehicles," Strelnikov told Kontur. The MoD could have displayed vintage T-34 tanks from 1945, he added -- "but that would have been laughable."

Military historian Mikhail Zhirokhov pointed to a deeper problem: the Russian defense industry has stalled.

"There are no new missile systems, no new tanks, no new armored personnel carriers. Russia has nothing that could impress a Western audience," Zhirokhov told Kontur.

He noted that since the Cold War, the parade had served as a venue for debuting hardware, drawing military attachés who would analyze every vehicle on display.

"After every parade, I saw dozens of articles analyzing what drove by, how it moved, and how many there were. It was much like what happens in North Korea today."

The home front is not safe

Security is the other factor. Ukrainian strike drones now reach deep inside Russian territory. The strike on the Ukhta oil refinery in the Komi Republic -- roughly 1,750 kilometers (1,090 miles) from the Ukrainian border -- stands as one of the deepest confirmed strikes on Russian soil to date.

"A distance of 1,500 to 2,000 kilometers (930 to 1,240 miles) inside Russia is no longer a peaceful home front," Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces (USF), known by his call sign "Madyar," told the BBC.

"The Ministry of Defense and even [Russian President Vladimir] Putin haven't been the ones deciding this issue for a long time. It is 'Madyar' who decides," blogger Serhiy Ivanov said on Facebook.

Moscow remains exposed despite the city's dense air defense.

On April 28, Putin proposed a truce during the May 9 celebrations in a phone call with US President Donald Trump, according to Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov. The timing was not coincidental.

Propaganda, not power

Ukrainian political consultant and Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) serviceman Oleksandr Antoniuk said the parade's stripped-down format reflects a collapse in the "world's second army" narrative.

"The image has crumbled to such an extent that demonstrating technical props and personnel would evoke nothing but negativity," Antoniuk told Kontur.

Much of the equipment that could have been showcased has already been destroyed in Ukraine.

"What is the point of showing a hypothetical 'Oplot' tank if it hasn't been seen anywhere on the front line?" Antoniuk asked.

The one weapon Moscow can still display without damaging its image, he said, is its nuclear arsenal.

Despite the constraints, Zhirokhov believes the Kremlin will not abandon the parade tradition, which has become a cornerstone of Putin's political identity.

Antoniuk expects the messaging to follow a familiar script: "We defeated fascism, and we will defeat Nazism."

Russia will not cancel May 9, Antoniuk said.

"To abandon this celebration would be tantamount to admitting that the 'Russian world' and its entire ideology have collapsed."