Putin’s Pitiful Parade and the Strategic Pressure from Ukraine’s Drones (From FOX News)

What a pitiful parade Putin put on in Moscow’s Red Square on May 9, 2026. Russia normally commemorates the 1945 Allied victory over Nazi Germany with an all-out military display, but this year’s parade was no showcase. “It’s curious. No missiles, no tanks on display during the parade in Moscow, ostensibly because they’re all on the front lines. Either that, or most of them have been destroyed,” observed Jon Scott, host of The Fox Report. Highlights below, and full clip here.

Rebecca Grant: This was just about the worst parade ever, as you say. No tanks, no missiles, just a video of a nuclear submarine and, of course, those North Koreans marching. But I think part of the reason for this pitiful parade is that Putin is really worried about Ukrainian drones, which have hit all over Russia. Honestly, the Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian energy targets are starting to change this war, and I’m glad to see it.

Jon Scott: Ukraine has developed its own drone industry, amazingly in the middle of a war, when they were attacked; but they’ve developed their own drone industry and they show real promise. I mean they kind of changed the rules of warfare.

Rebecca Grant: They have completely changed the war. They carried out 21 strikes in April alone using these long-range drones, mostly against energy targets, from the Baltic up north, all the way down to the Black Sea. And they hit a ship in the Caspian Sea. They’ve hit enough of Russia’s oil production to really put a cut in Russia’s exports. Now, it’s just temporary, but this is starting to be the kind of strategic pressure from Ukraine with the drone strikes that really might get Putin’s attention. Putin’s got to feel the military pain in order to get to a ceasefire in this war which I’m afraid is a long way off, and I’m glad to see Ukraine stepping up with this and I think that’s why we saw this really scale back parade in Moscow. Putin does not have much to celebrate.

Jon Scott: Well, there is a short-term ceasefire underway, and President Trump says it’s possible it could be extended. Listen.

President Donald J. Trump (Sound on Tape): I mean, it could be nice, I’d like to see it stop. Russia, Ukraine it’s the worst thing since World War II in terms of, like, 25,000 young soldiers every month. It’s crazy. 

Jon Scott: So it could very well be the President was pretty optimistic early on that he was going to be able to bring a peace deal to this war; but then I guess he ran into the reality of Vladimir Putin.

Rebecca Grant: He did, and the difficulty has been that Russia won’t take any sort of deal. There was a thought that if there was an economic package offered, maybe some sanctions relief, they could come to a territorial settlement. That hasn’t worked so far, but this three-day ceasefire tells you that President Trump is still very much engaged. I’ve got to tell you, the battlefield situation has changed. Russia’s bloody offensive has really stalled out. They have not been able to take the rest of the Donbass, getting the rest of the territory of Donetsk, and at this rate Russia won’t be able to take the rest of the Donbass for years. So that momentum that they looked like they had in 2025 has stalled out. You see Ukraine making much more battlefield progress and face it, Putin is never going to get the victory in Ukraine that he was hoping for

Jon Scott: Yeah, he thought he’d be in Kyiv in three days. Let me read to you part of New York Times analysis that was published today. It says “352,000 Russian soldiers had died in the war against Ukraine through the end of 2025, according to a new estimate. Facing an acute personnel shortage, Ukraine is seeking to ramp up the battlefield cost for Mr. Putin with a stated aim of increasing the number of Russian soldiers killed or wounded each month to 50,000 from 30,000.” According to its own statistics, Ukraine has not yet made much progress on that goal, but the Russians, you know, they use this meat grinder approach, they try to throw as many soldiers at a problem as they can, even if they all get killed; but they are running out of soldiers, are they not?

Rebecca Grant: Yes, the casualties have been terrible. Recruiting is getting harder. They’re starting to do offensives using motorcycles, and really light Infantry tactics. But the problem is all through this, we need to keep NATO strong. You know, if we want to move some troops out of Germany, fine, send them forward to Poland. Because the strong NATO and support for Ukraine is more critical now than ever. We are seeing, I think, Russia is coming towards a breaking point; it is going to be those Ukrainian strategic drone strikes though, I think, that may push the hardest in the end.