The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the participation of the leaders of Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in the Victory Parade on Red Square in Moscow on May 9.

"The participants were shown Russian military equipment, which has been participating in Russia's unprovoked aggressive war against Ukraine for the tenth year," the statement said.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry noted that the Russian President Vladimir Putin in his speech "justified the murders of Ukrainians, the destruction of Ukrainian cities and villages, the abduction of Ukrainian children and repressions against residents of the occupied Ukrainian territories."

“The night before the event, the Russian Federation fired 25 cruise missiles into Ukraine, including 15 into Kyiv, to cause more deaths and more destruction on Ukrainian soil,” the statement said.

The statement says that the peoples of Central Asia and the Caucasus made an invaluable contribution to the victory over Nazism 78 years ago.

The participation of their leaders in the statement is regarded as "an unfriendly step towards Ukraine, a manifestation of disdain for the Ukrainian people, who are fighting for their survival and freedom."

Vladimir Putin, speaking at the event, said that "a real war has been unleashed against Russia again, but we have repulsed international terrorism, we will protect the inhabitants of Donbass, we will ensure our security."

He accused the “Western globalist elites” of “still talking about their exclusivity, pitting people and splitting societies, provoking bloody conflicts and upheavals, sowing hatred, Russophobia, aggressive nationalism, destroying family, traditional values that make man man."

“Exorbitant ambitions, arrogance and permissiveness inevitably turn into tragedies. This is precisely the reason for the catastrophe that the Ukrainian people are now experiencing. He became a hostage of the coup d'état and the criminal regime of his Western masters that had developed on its basis, a bargaining chip in the implementation of their cruel, selfish plans, ”said the President of the Russian Federation.

He called the participation of the leaders of the CIS countries "a grateful attitude to the feat of our ancestors": "They fought together and won together - all the peoples of the USSR contributed to the common Victory."