Russian National Guard officers walk across Red Square, decorated for Victory Day ceremonies, Moscow, May 6, 2026 (Natalia Kolesnikova/Anadolu/Getty)

EA-The Focus Special: The World That Donald Trump Damaged

EA-Ukraine VideoCast: Kyiv Exposes Russia’s Vulnerabilities

EA-Times Radio VideoCast: Ukraine Ruins Putin’s Non-Victory Day

UPDATE 1526 GMT:

Video from The Guardian of the scaled-back Victory Day ceremonies.

UPDATE 1131 GMT:

The confirmed number of Russian military personnel killed during Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, up to the end of 2025, has passed 352,000.

Independent Russian outlets Meduza and Mediazona and the BBC Russian Service compiled the list from court statistics and data from the Registry of Inheritance Cases.

The losses peaked in 2024-2025 with Russia’s high-casualty attempts to seize territory in Ukraine.

The researchers note that the 352,000 is a conservative total. It does not include foreign fighters or troops who went missing in the second half of 2025. The fate of tens of thousands of soldiers whose bodies have never been found, and whose relatives have not yet filed legal proceedings, remains unknown.

The outlets cite Ukrainian estimates that the Russian military lost approximately 156,700 men killed and wounded, while only 148,400 volunteers were recruited during the same period.

UPDATE 1118 GMT:

Belarus leader Alexandr Lukashenko tries to reassure Vladimir Putin over only five foreign leaders appearing at today’s Victory Day ceremonies in Moscow:

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine and Russia have agreed a ceasefire from Saturday to Monday, as Moscow holds scaled-back Victory Day ceremonies today.

Donald Trump announced the ceasefire on social media on Friday evening. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed Trump’s request and posted, “We received Russia’s agreement to conduct a prisoner exchange in the format of 1,000 for 1,000.”

Zelensky issued an official declaration that Ukraine would not attack the Victory Day ceremonies in Moscow, marking Russia’s triumph over Germany in World War II, “Red Square is less important to us than the lives of Ukrainian prisoners, who can be returned home.”

Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said in a statement, “At the instruction of Russian President Vladimir Putin, I confirm that US President Donald Trump’s initiative regarding the ceasefire and an exchange of prisoners of war between Russia and Ukraine is acceptable to the Russian side.”

Fearing Ukrainian attacks, the Kremlin removed military hardware such as tanks, missiles, and artillery from the Red Square parade, and it tightened intensive restrictions on the Internet. Russian officials have been shaken by Kyiv’s escalating strikes on infrastructure supporting Putin’s 50 1/2-month full-scale invasion, including refineries, terminals, ports, and high-technology complexes.

Zelensky announced a ceasefire from the start of Wednesday, but Russia violated it with thousands of attacks, including hundreds of drones, killing and wounding Ukrainian civilians.

Addressing the Red Square ceremony, Putin repeated his line that Russian soldiers in Ukraine are fighting an “aggressive force armed and supported by the entire NATO bloc”. He insisted, “Our cause is just.”

In contrast to other years, only a small delegation of foreign leaders — from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Laos, and Malaysia — attended the ceremony. A column of soldiers from North Korea, which has sent around 12,000 troops to prop up Putin’s invasion, marched in the parade.

Zelensky focused on Saturday’s commemoration of Europe Day.

From the first days of the full-scale war until today, Europe has stood with Ukraine. And this is not charity – it is a choice made by Europeans: to stand on the same side as the brave and the strong – the Ukrainians who are fighting today for peace and true protection against tyranny, not only for themselves, but for the entire continent. And we will inevitably defend our state, our people, and our right to freely choose our future – a future in Europe.