The Ilyushin Il-80 plane has no external windows, except in the cockpit, and features a dome that supposedly prevents exposure to electromagnetic pulse attacks. Photo / Getty Images
The Ilyushin Il-80 plane has no external windows, except in the cockpit, and features a dome that supposedly prevents exposure to electromagnetic pulse attacks. Photo / Getty Images
Russia's "doomsday plane" designed to protect Vladimir Putin in the event of a nuclear attack will make its first appearance in a decade at Moscow's Victory Day parade on Monday.
The Ilyushin Il-80 plane, known as "the flying Kremlin", will take part in a fly-past over Red Square in a clear warning to the West.
The giant aircraft will be accompanied by the Tu-96 "Bear" and Tu-160 "White Swan", which are capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
The "doomsday plane" has no external windows, except in the cockpit, and features a dome that supposedly prevents exposure to electromagnetic pulse attacks.
Putin, who will address the nation on Monday morning, may choose to repeat his threats of a nuclear strike on the West if it escalates its support for Ukraine.
Last month, the Russian president condemned weapons supplies to Kyiv, promising to use his entire arsenal "lightning-fast" if red lines are crossed.
A Russian Tupolev TU-95 (Nato reporting name: Bear) jet bomber fly over Red Square during the Victory Day Parade main rehearsals, May 7, 2022 in Moscow, Russia. Photo / Getty Images
Russia celebrates Victory Day on May 9, a day after Britain and the US, as Joseph Stalin demanded a separate letter of surrender from the Germans which arrived a day later.
It has long been one of the most revered days in the national calendar, commemorating the defeat of Nazism and the enormous loss of life sustained in World War II.
However, in recent years, the Kremlin has increasingly used the anniversary to glorify the Soviet past and its own military adventurism.
In a speech on Sunday to former Soviet nations on the 77th anniversary of the fall of Nazi Germany, Putin made the link explicit.
"Today, our soldiers, like their ancestors, are fighting side-by-side to rid their native land of the Nazi filth," he said. "As in 1945, victory will be ours."
On Monday afternoon, Moscow authorities will seal off streets in the city centre to make way for a rally by the "Immortal Regiment", where civilians carry photographs of family members killed in the war.
The Ilyushin Il-80 plane has no external windows, except in the cockpit, and features a dome that supposedly prevents exposure to electromagnetic pulse attacks. Photo / Getty Images
Initially conceived by a TV channel in Siberia, the rally has been co-opted by the Putin regime, which this year informed participants that they would be welcome to carry images of soldiers killed in Ukraine.
The military parade through Red Square this year will be missing some of the combat-ready weaponry which has been deployed to take part in the war.
It will feature just two-thirds of the number of vehicles seen last year, according to Russian defence ministry data.
Russian Tupolev TU-95MS strategic bomber and Ilyushin IL-78 military plane fly over the Kremlin during the general rehearsals of the Victory Day Parade inf front of the Kremlin. Photo / Getty Images
Amongst the notable absentees are tanks and rocket systems which have sustained heavy losses in Putin's "special military operation" across the border.
This year's aerial display will not feature any combat-ready Su-30 and Su-34 bomber jets, with many of the latter reportedly shot down over Ukraine.
In addition, 77 jets and helicopters are expected to fly over Red Square to match the number of years since the Allied victory over the Nazis, whilst Mig-29 fighter jets will fly in the shape of the letter Z, which has been used as a symbol of supporters of the Russian invasion.
The parade is also expected to display next-generation weaponry that has neither entered mass production nor been deployed on the battlefield.
In a sign of heightened security concerns, authorities in Belgorod and Voronezh, two Russian cities near the Ukrainian border, said they would neither hold military parades nor show off weaponry.
Both Russian regions have seen a string of unexplained attacks on military infrastructure, largely attributed to Ukrainian sabotage.
US and European intelligence sources have said that Putin could use the parade speech to announce a mass mobilisation to draft civilians into the military and declare an all-out war on Ukraine.
Putin's spokesman last week dismissed the reports as "nonsense", but speculation about general mobilisation is rife nevertheless.
Abbas Gallyamov, a Moscow-based political analyst, said on his Telegram channel: "Putin does not have much to say from his stand. There is no victory on the horizon, and what kind of Victory Day is it without a victory?"
Russia's exiled opposition figures have condemned the Red Square parade as an attempt to glorify the country's atrocities in Ukraine.
"Putin has destroyed not only our future but also our past when we had this wonderful day of commemoration," said Dmitry Gudkov, an exiled opposition leader.
"This monstrosity on Red Square has nothing to do with our ancestors. It's not them who are going to be marching [on the square], and the parade will be led by killers and war criminals."
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, released a heartfelt video, likening Russia's war crimes to Nazi atrocities during World War II.
"Darkness has returned to Ukraine decades after the Second World War… The evil has returned," he said in a video address filmed near the rubble of a charred apartment block in a Kyiv suburb.
"We will overcome everything, and we know this for sure because our military and all our people are descendants of those who defeated Nazism."
Russia's "doomsday plane" made headlines in 2020 when thieves broke in and stole equipment. A modernised version of the plane, which was seen last week above the outskirts of Moscow, has been announced.
In the US, a version of the "doomsday" plane for Joe Biden, the US president, was seen in southern California last week. The E-4B Nightwatch aircraft can be used either in the case of a national emergency or the destruction of command and control centres.
Russian authorities have stepped up anti-Western propaganda in anticipation of Victory Day, with exhibitions of Nato "cruelty" opening in 20 cities.
In a visitor book in Moscow, the BBC last week saw scribbled Z symbols and exhortations to "free Ukraine from Nazis", as well as a note calling it all "very stupid propaganda".
On Sunday, a video emerged of a young child dressed in costume as a Russian tank, labelled with the Z symbol, apparently rehearsing a Victory Day parade at his school.
