For the first time in nearly two decades, Russia's Victory Day parade featured no tanks or military hardware. The cobblestones of Red Square stayed quiet as soldiers marched on foot, joined by North Korean troops in a historic first.
The unusual scene followed U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement of a 72-hour ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, beginning May 8. Trump called it potentially "the beginning of the end" of the war. The agreement includes a prisoner exchange of 1,000 Ukrainians for 1,000 Russians, confirmed by Russian aide Yuri Ushakov and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy's response was striking: "Red Square is less important to us than the lives of Ukrainian prisoners who can be brought home."
The breakthrough came after recent telephone contacts between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. For Trump, now in his second term, this represents his most concrete result in efforts to end the war.
Putin faced an awkward timing. Victory Day marks the 81st anniversary of the Soviet Union's 1945 victory over Nazi Germany, an event the Kremlin uses to justify its war in Ukraine. Yet the missing military hardware undermined his message. The five-year war has devastated both nations, with Ukrainian drones repeatedly striking targets inside Russia.
Past ceasefires have collapsed quickly. Skepticism runs deep on both sides, though for 72 hours, the guns were meant to fall silent.