Russia marks 70 years since victory over Nazi Germany with huge parade

Russia marked 70 years since the victory over Nazi Germany on Saturday with a spectacular parade in Moscow featuring some 16,000 soldiers, 200 armored vehicles and 150 planes and helicopters.

This is expected to be the last major anniversary of the conflict when significant numbers of World War II veterans are still alive to take part.

Presidents including China’s Xi Jinping, India’s Pranab Mukherjee and Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro joined their Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Moscow’s Red Square for the parade.

Many Western leaders have chosen to miss the event, however, in protest of Russia’s alleged military involvement in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Moscow is accused by Kiev and the West of backing and equipping pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. It also annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region a little over a year ago.

Also absent was North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who had been expected to attend until Moscow announced 10 days ago that “domestic affairs” would instead keep him at home. North Korean state media reported Saturday that the country had carried out a successful underwater test of a ballistic missile.

Putin pays tribute to veterans

Victory Day, marking the day that Germany surrendered to the Soviets in 1945, is a major holiday in Russia.

In a speech in Red Square, Putin paid tribute to those who died in the conflict and in Nazi concentration camps before holding a moment of silence.

Russian new ARMATA T-14 tanks move along a street in Moscow as day breaks following Victory Day military parade night training on May 5, 2015. Russia celebrates the 70th anniversary of the 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany on May 9. AFP PHOTO / ALEXANDER UTKINALEXANDER UTKIN/AFP/Getty Images

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He said the veterans present were the “main heroes” of the commemorations. “Today your children or grandchildren are grateful to you for this victory, working for the future of the country,” he said.

As the parade got under way, ranks of soldiers carrying standards and flags marched through the cobbled square, accompanied by impeccably choreographed military bands.

Making its debut in the parade of military vehicles was Russia’s new main battle tank, the Armata T-14.

According to the state-run website RT.com, the Armata “is a cutting-edge vehicle with an unmanned turret armed with a brand new 125 mm smoothbore cannon, which is the most powerful gun of its kind to date in terms of muzzle energy.”

Keen observers of military hardware got a sneak preview recently as the tank was rolled out in practice sessions for Saturday’s event.

The show of might also included large vehicles bearing Russia’s latest generation of intercontinental ballistic missiles and military aircraft flying in formation overhead.

Analyst: Parade demonstrates Russian defiance

Pavel Felgenhauer, a Russian defense analyst and expert on weaponry, said the parade was intended to send a message to the world that Russia is back as a great military power.

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“It’s a sign of Russia’s defiance, that the Western attempts to kind of ignore Russia will not work, that Russia is strong and it has powerful friends,” he said.

During the parade, Putin and China’s President were talking much of the time through interpreters, he said.

The decision by many Western leaders not to attend has been presented in Russian state media as an attempt to detract from Russia’s role in the victory and “undermine Russian greatness,” said Felgenhauer.

Russia is in the midst of a massive rearmament program, with the Armata tank the most talked-about piece of new hardware, said Felgenhauer.

It’s still in a more or less prototype form, he said, with mass production of the tank not expected to begin for a couple of years or more. Nonetheless, it’s a potent symbol for the Russian military, he added.

Jill Dougherty, a Russia expert at the Wilson Center and CNN’s former Moscow bureau chief, said social media and TV reports indicate that many ordinary Russians feel insulted by the absence of Western leaders from the commemoration.

They feel it’s a victory that primarily Russians won with their deaths and are angered that it is not being marked by other Allied nations, she said.

“There’s a feeling of insult and anger,” she said. “Unfortunately that plays very much into the feeling that’s going on in Moscow right now, which is exactly about that – insult by the West, a feeling that the West has become the enemy once again.”

World War II is extremely important to Russians, she said, and provokes strong emotions in them.

Search for World War II remains

More than 26 million people in the former Soviet Union died during World War II, known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War.

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The bodies of as many as 4 million Russian soldiers have never been recovered, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

Groups of volunteers equipped with metal detectors scour the forests of what was the Eastern Front for human remains, particularly around St. Petersburg, where some of the bloodiest battles of the 20th Century took place.

Seven decades later, the earth is still littered with remnants of Russia’s wartime past, the bones of those who fell sometimes covered by just a thin layer of soil.

Europe, United States mark VE Day

Ukraine is also holding Victory Day commemorations on Saturday, led by President Petro Poroshenko in Kiev.

Pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, and Sevastopol in Crimea, were planning to stage their own military parades.

Other European nations and the United States marked the 70th anniversary of the Allied victory in Europe on Friday.

A B-25 bomber flies towards Washington, DC on May 8, 2015. Fifty-six World War II warbirds flew over the district to mark the 70th anniversary of VE Day, and the end of World War II.

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In Washington, D.C., more than two dozen World War II-era fighters and bomber planes took part in a flyover of some of the nation’s most famous monuments, watched by hundreds of World War II veterans.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry laid a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Warrior at the Arc d’Triomphe in Paris, alongside French President Francois Hollande.

“Today, as we reflect on the past, we accept our responsibility to maintain that commitment to justice, to uphold the rule of law, and to work as Allies and friends to defend the rights and dignity of every human being,” Kerry said in a statement.

In London, Prime Minister David Cameron and other political leaders laid wreaths at the Cenotaph, hours after general election results came through giving Cameron’s Conservative Party an unexpected majority.

A veteran salutes during an armed forces and veterans' parade in London on Sunday, May 10, the final day of commemoration of the 70th anniversary of Victory in Europe day.

Actors dressed in World War II-era Soviet uniforms watch fireworks over St. Basil Cathedral in Moscow's Red Square on Saturday, May 9, after a concert marking the 70th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany.

Russian soldiers march through Red Square during the 70th anniversary Victory Day military parade in Moscow on May 9. The Victory Day parade commemorates the end of World War II in Europe.

Victor Novopashin, a Russian World War II veteran, dances with a young woman dressed in Soviet-era uniform in Gorky Park in Moscow on May 9.

A veteran of World War II, which is known among states of the former Soviet Union as the Great Patriotic War, attends the Moscow parade May 9 marking the 70th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany.

Russian soldiers march through Red Square during the Victory Day military parade in Moscow on May 9.

Visitors arrive to lay flowers near the tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Antakalnis memorial during Victory Day celebrations in Vilnius, Lithuania, on May 9. Lithuania was part of the Soviet Union during World War II.

A Crimean veteran accepts flowers from a young girl during a march in central Sevastopol on May 9. Friction continues between Russia and Western nations that were allied with the former Soviet Union during World War II, stemming from Russia's recent actions involving Ukraine, including its annexation of Crimea last year.

An elderly woman passes by a wall engraved with the names of the Soviet Union Heroes, during the 70th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany, in Ukraine's capital Kiev, on May 9. Ukrainians mark the World War II anniversary and Victory Day on May 9 as a national holiday.

World War II-era planes fly over the Washington Monument on Friday, May 8, during a celebration of the 70th anniversary of V-E (Victory in Europe) Day -- the day Germany surrendered to the Allies, ending the European phase of the war.

People in Washington watch the flyover.

More than two dozen planes flew over Washington's monuments.

Soldiers dressed in World War II-era uniforms place wreaths in front of the Freedom Wall at the World War II Memorial in Washington.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Paris.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, right, attends a V-E Day service at the Cenotaph in London. Next to Cameron is outgoing Liberal Democratic Party leader Nick Clegg, center. Outgoing Labour Party leader Ed Miliband is at far left.

Spectators in London gather during the tribute at the Cenotaph.

UK representatives gather for the tribute at the Cenotaph.

Chelsea pensioners sit on a bench for the V-E Day celebration in London.

Spectators in London wave flags and wear World War II-era clothing.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu leave Red Square after the Victory Day parade.

Russian Army T-14 Armata tanks prepare to participate in the annual Victory Parade at Red Square.

Celebrating V-E Day 70 years later

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CNN’s Matthew Chance reported from Moscow and Laura Smith-Spark wrote and reported from London.