Many expected the announcement of the invasion of Ukraine on May 9, the day Russia commemorates Victory Day with a military parade through Moscow’s Red Square.
Some awaited the date with the fear that the Russian leader would officially declare war on Ukraine and would mean an even greater deployment of the Russian army on Ukraine; others, as Pope Francis recently insinuated in an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, with the optimism that, once and for all, the invasion would end.
In any case, this May 9 was marked on the calendar as a potentially key day for the development of the war, for better or for worse. But what is so special about this day for the superpower?
Victory over Nazi Germany
On this day in 1945, the Soviet Union defeated Nazi Germany in the context of World War II. Therefore, this day Russia commemorates the 77th anniversary of that day.
On that day, Germany signed its surrender and accepted its defeat in Europe, since the conflict continued in Japan until August of the same year.
This surrender was made officially in the last moments of May 8, near Berlin. Consequently, all German war operations ceased around 10:34 p.m., while it was after midnight in Moscow (it was 00:43 a.m. on the 9th).
For this reason, while in European countries Victory in Europe Day is celebrated on May 8, in others, such as Serbia, Belarus or the aforementioned Russia, it is celebrated on the 9th.
Given the important symbolic load deposited by the Russians on this day, many predicted that today the development of the war in Ukraine could take another course, either with peace or with more intensity in the fighting. Something that, in any case, does not seem to happen.
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