Martin Lagrave
05/06/2025 at 15:28Updated the 05/06/2025 at 18:43
The Kremlin announces that 29 heads of state, including Xi Jinping and Lula, will attend the celebrations of May 9 in Moscow on Friday. Chinese soldiers will parade alongside the Russian troops, in a context marked by the war in Ukraine.
Moscow is about to score with great fanfare on May 9, a symbolic date of victory over Nazi Germany. According to the Kremlin, 29 foreign leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, are expected in the Russian capital on Friday to attend the traditional military parade on the Red Square.
“We are waiting for the presence of 29 foreign leaders in the victory parade,” said the Diplomatic Advisor to the Russian president, Iouri Ouchakov on Tuesday during a press point. According to him, military training of thirteen countries, including China, will parade alongside the Russian forces.
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-Meeting between Putin and Xi Jinping
This foreign participation takes on a particular relief when kyiv has already warned that it would perceive any presence in the parade as “support for the aggressive state”. The presence of Chinese soldiers is part of a particularly tense context because several Chinese nationals were captured while fighting for the Russian army.
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On the sidelines of these celebrations, Vladimir Putin is due to meet Thursday Xi Jinping to discuss the most sensitive international issues. “The most important questions will be discussed during this head-to-face meeting: the Ukrainian file and Russian-American relations,” said Iouri Ouchakov.
It will be one of the few international presidents of the Russian president since the start of the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and a new opportunity for Moscow to display its alliances in the face of Western sanctions and increasing diplomatic isolation.
