operation happening in ukraine, he says. today i wave the flag to support our army. but i hope it will end soon, he adds. a hint of awareness, perhaps, at the horrific cost. this is what victory day is meant to mark. the soviet union s role in the allied victory in the second world war. russia sustained millions of casualties, paying an enormous sacrifice. but the power of a military parade to bolster national pride has never been lost on the kremlin s leaders. least of all, president putin, whose victory day parades have, for years, heralded russia s resurgence as a military power. there s speculation this year s parade will form the backdrop for a major announcement on
police all said the chief investigator from kharkiv said to us that combat was ongoing. it was impossible to reach the column, but they found four corpses in the cars. the remains of a 13-year-old girl have also been positively identified. we ll continue to get more details but this just breaking in the last few minutes. just heartbreaking, isa, so many developments. thank you very much for staying on top of them. we ll come back to you later in the show. joining us to discuss the latest in russia s war on ukraine is cnn international diplomatic editor, nic robertson, he s in helsinki, and cnn global affairs analyst, david aaron miller. thank you for being with me this morning. nic, putin is expected to announce some kind of victory
us about where russia s military stands right now? i think american intelligence will be monitoring that situation closely. the parades across russia will likely be thinner than usual, in large part because so much of the equipment is redeployed elsewhere in ukraine. the other interesting thing is there s reports that the russias are considering having a military parade in mariupol. no formal announcement has been made. clearly in putin s mind, since he was pushed back out of artillery range by ukrainian forces in kharkiv, ukraine s second largest city, consolidating control over mariupol, changing road signs, holding elections in towns and areas in the donbas which russians have controlled, it would be a victory he can package on a day that was supposed do be the culmination of putin s brilliant invasion of
tomorrow during this may 9th commemoration. he will be speaking on red square. putin s forces do control a large stretch of land in southern and eastern ukraine stretching from crimea to the donbas. do you believe there s a chance that he stops there or do you believe there s signs that he will keep going, try to take odesa and the black sea and try for kyiv? odesa would be the more immediate concern for the ukrainians than kyiv. putin would have to have success along the whole of the black sea coast, but likely before he would want to turn and commit forces against kyiv. if he had swift success, that might encourage him to do that. the balance for him at the moment is to consider whether or not he continues calling this a special military operation or he decides to declare a war, which could imply conscription, of which there is a big anti
ukraine. so there s going to be a lot of spinning here, it seems to me. aaron, we just heard from the cia director, bill burns, he said that president putin is in a frame of mind where he doesn t believe he can afford to lose. if the cia director is saying that, what do you believe we can expect to see in the next phase of the war that started a couple weeks ago? how much more brutal do you think it can get? as a former ambassador to moscow, bill burns is able to read putin and clearly they re reading intelligence. there s no question about it. whether or not the russians have achieved what they wanted so far, putin is in this for keeps. it s the end game for him. in his own mind, he cannot lose. it s a mix of grievances and an ideology about return to russian greatness. in answer to your question, the