The West must ensure that Volodymyr Zelensky is empowered to secure a just peace for the Ukrainian people

Hamish de Bretton-Gordon

Hamish de Bretton-Gordon was an army officer for 23 years, reaching the rank of colonel, and was commanding officer of the UK’s Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Regiment and Nato’s Rapid Reaction CBRN Battalion.

Published 11 May 2026

Russian President Vladimir Putin has attempted to project an image of strength and inevitability over Russia’s disastrous war in Ukraine. Yet the reality on display during Saturday’s deeply underwhelming Victory Day parade in Moscow told an altogether different story.

For the first time in two decades, Russia could not muster a single tank in what is traditionally the Kremlin’s grand annual exhibition of military might – an event Putin himself describes as a warning to Russia’s enemies. What the world witnessed was not power, but weakness: a diminished parade, hollow symbolism, and a regime increasingly fearful of its own vulnerability.

Speaking after the scaled-back spectacle, Putin declared: “I think that the matter is coming to an end,” referring to what he still absurdly calls his “special military operation” in Ukraine. Yet even the parade itself exposed the Kremlin’s anxiety. With Ukrainian drones and missiles now capable of striking deep inside Russia, Putin clearly dared not risk displaying valuable military hardware at a known time and location. Instead, the regime relied heavily on massed marching formations, including North Korean troops, to create the illusion of scale and strength.

A temporary US-brokered ceasefire undoubtedly allowed the event to proceed without incident, although both Ukraine and Russia later accused one another of breaching the three-day truce. Nevertheless, the atmosphere surrounding the parade was unmistakably subdued.

Even Putin’s speech, usually a lengthy endurance test in which the dictator indulges in imperial nostalgia and Soviet-era rhetoric, was remarkably brief and muted. Gone was the swagger of a leader convinced of inevitable victory. In its place stood a man attempting to justify an increasingly costly and strategically catastrophic war. Putin insisted Russia was fighting a “just” war and described Ukraine as an “aggressive force” being armed by Nato. It is an extraordinary claim from the man who launched an entirely illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine more than four years ago, having already illegally annexed Crimea in 2014.

Later, during a press conference, Putin accused the West of fuelling confrontation with Russia. The irony is breathtaking. It is Russia, not the West, that has spent years conducting a sustained hybrid war against Europe and particularly the United Kingdom. The murder of Alexander Litvinenko and the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury remain chilling reminders of the Kremlin’s willingness to conduct state-sponsored attacks on British soil, alongside relentless cyber warfare, sabotage and espionage across Europe.

Nevertheless, the suggestion of peace emerging from the Kremlin offers some hope for Ukraine’s exhausted civilian population, many of whom have spent years sleeping in underground shelters rather than their own homes. The strategic landscape has shifted dramatically since previous negotiations, when Putin believed he could dictate terms demanding that Ukraine surrender territory, weaken its armed forces and abandon its Western ambitions.

Today, the battlefield reality is moving increasingly in Ukraine’s favour. Ukrainian forces continue to make incremental but meaningful advances while Russia suffers appalling losses in both manpower and equipment. Crucially, Ukraine is now beginning to manoeuvre armour more effectively through what had previously become a static, drone-dominated battlefield. These small tactical gains could soon evolve into something far more significant.

At the same time, Ukraine has demonstrated an increasingly sophisticated ability to strike strategically important targets deep inside Russia, even without large-scale American military support. Critical infrastructure attacks are now placing growing pressure on the Russian economy and exposing the Kremlin’s inability to fully defend its own territory. Putin’s implicit admission that Moscow itself can no longer be guaranteed safety sends a powerful message: Russia’s war is no longer confined to distant frontlines.

All of this comes amid growing signs of unease inside Russia itself. Public criticism of the war, once almost unthinkable, is becoming more visible as ordinary Russians begin to question the price of Putin’s disastrous gamble in Ukraine. This criticism would be even more evident were it not for a recent crackdown on internet services in Russia and the silencing of many dissenting voices.

If Europe, and critically the United States under Donald Trump, remain firmly committed to supporting Kyiv, then the prospect of achieving a just and sustainable peace settlement may now be closer than at any point since the illegal annexation of Crimea over a decade ago.

The responsibility now lies squarely with Western leaders. Britain, under Keir Starmer, still has an important role to play despite years of underinvestment in our own military. Let us hope he still has the bandwidth to lift his head occasionally for a look around as he tries to save his own skin. The British Armed Forces remain highly professional and significant.

What Saturday demonstrated beyond doubt is that Putin is wounded politically, militarily and psychologically. History teaches us that when a dangerous predator is weakened, that is precisely the moment to apply maximum pressure – not to offer concessions for the sake of expediency. The most effective time to kick a man is when he’s down.

The West must ensure that Volodymyr Zelensky is empowered to secure a just peace for the Ukrainian people, rather than allowing Putin an escape route simply to bring the fighting to a premature close.

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Col Hamish de Bretton-Gordon commanded the 1^st Royal Tank Regiment and his next book Tank Command is published on June 4 2026