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
Massive grand gestures that were anticipated. at the same time, he also did not leave any indication after this speech that he was prepared to back down on that conflict in ukraine. he went to some lengths to draw parallels between the battle defeat the nazis in 1945 and the battles taking place in ukraine right now. so, trying to kind of plunder that traumatic experience in russia of the second world war. they lost 25 million people in that conflict and try to use it to bolster support for the military campaign currently under way in ukraine. matthew chance with the latest for us. thank you. ukraine s president zelenskyy responding to putin s speech with his own victory day message, sounding confident his country will win the war. translator: we are fighting for our children s freedom and, therefore, we will win.