Zelenskyy says Ukraine will not attack Putin’s military parade in Moscow in return for prisoner swap

There will be no neat rows of tanks and ballistic missile carriers rolling down the smooth cobbles of Moscow’s Red Square on Saturday, as Russia scales back what is usually a grand militaristic Victory Day parade celebrating the Soviet Union’s role in defeating Nazi Germany.

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More than four years into the war in Ukraine, Russia’s defense ministry last week cited the “current operational situation” as it announced the change. A large amount of Russia’s military hardware is tied up in the conflict, but there were also signs the Kremlin was worried about increasingly damaging Ukrainian drone attacks deep inside Russia, and what appears to be Moscow’s diminishing ability to stop them.

Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday appeared to give specific assurances that there would not be a strike on Moscow’s Red Square, under a temporary ceasefire deal that includes a prisoner exchange to free 1,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war.

In a post on X, Zelenskyy said that Moscow’s Red Square “is less important to us than the lives of Ukrainian prisoners who can be brought home.”

Unusually, his statement came alongside a presidential decree specifying that, “taking into account numerous requests,” there would be no attack on Moscow “to permit the holding of a parade.”

Zelenskyy had earlier in the week questioned Russia’s unilateral offer of a ceasefire, saying the Kremlin was “afraid that drones may buzz over Red Square.” Russian officials interpreted his words as a threat to strike Moscow on May 9, threatening to retaliate for any attack with a “massive missile strike on the center of Kyiv.”

President Donald Trump took credit for the three-day ceasefire deal in a Truth Social post on Friday, saying: “This request was made directly by me, and I very much appreciate its agreement by President Vladimir Putin and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.”

Ukrainian drone strikes have become an increasing headache for Putin. Days ahead of the parade, a Ukrainian drone crashed into a building just four miles away from the Kremlin.

The Kremlin said “additional measures” would be taken to protect Putin during the parade, and authorities had warned about mobile internet outages in the capital to “ensure the safety of Victory Day celebrations.”

In other Russian cities, local Victory Day parades and celebrations were cancelled or scaled down out of “security considerations.”