any kind of sense of defeat, a clear humiliating defeat for putin would be extremely destabilizing. i think that s why we saw him in this speech. it was my sense he was trying to tamp down expectations. he wasn t calling on russians to make great sacrifices like they did in world war ii. it was very kind of muted and in that sense, i think that the expectation shaping was key. you know what we can glean from that as well, he may not have the political space inside russia to do more. there may not be enough band width quite frankly for vladimir putin to pull more assets into the fight, to draft russians, to tell the oligarchs to continue to hold tight. he may be really running out of rope. we don t know exactly. c kremlinology is opaque. if he s running out of road.
russian forces, which would indicate they intend to double down on their conflict in ukraine, and put more forces to bear there to perhaps make more progress, and so it was in some ways, you know, a speech that f was not as much a fire brand speech as perhaps had been anticipated, john. the world was watching this, matthew, what should the world take from it? it s a good question, and it s difficult, of course, to answer because on the one hand, you have seen this, you know, remarkable display of spectacular display of russian military might. we have seen that played out on the battlefields in ukraine as well. but, i mean, the fact that vladimir putin did not take this opportunity to declare war and double down on his military adventure inside ukraine, perhaps that s an indication that the reality of the situation in ukraine, the fact that russia is unable to make
just the commemoration of the soviet victory over nazi germany in 1945, which is what victory day is all about. he also tried repeatedly to make the connection between that battle, the fathers and grandfathers and great grandfathers of those attending this parade today fought against nazi germany and the battle being fought now in ukraine. he s trying to use that traumatic memory, which is very acute in russia, about the second world war, what russians call the great patriotic war, and trying to use that to mobilize support for the current conflict. that was evident throughout his speech. what we didn t hear was concrete commitment from vladimir putin about a formal declaration of war. it was anticipated that he could use this opportunity to make that declaration. at the moment, russia calls its conflict in ukraine a special military operation, and there was more an announcement of a more broad mobilization of
just say watchathon into your voice remote to watch now. g7 nations have committed to ban oil imports from russia. the latest move by the west to put pressure on russian president putin for the war in ukraine. cnn has reporters around the globe bringing you the latest developments, starting with nic robertson in finland. i m nic robertson in helsinki, the g7 leaders have agreed to end russian oil imports in a timely and orderly way. no hard fixed date, but that commitment clear. they ve also made commitments to counter russian disinformation, to hold russian officials accountable for the killing of
that did not happen. the kremlin blaming bad weather for that. as putin was speaking in moscow, ukraine s president released his own victory day message. translator: very soon there will be two victory days in ukraine, and someone won t have any. we won then, and we will win now. happy victory over naziism day. u.s. diplomats return to kyiv for the first time since the war began. it s a big step towards officially reopening the embassy. let s go right to cnn s matthew chance live for us in moscow. mat matthew, what stood out to you about putin s speech this morning is this. this morning? look, first of all, the atmosphere, the spectacle of the display of russian military might was as we expected it to be, quite dramatic. we saw thousands of russian troops on the cobbles of red square chanting patriotic