Russian President Vladimir Putin will address the "grandest" ever annual Victory Day parade in Moscow on Friday, evoking the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II to rally support for his troops fighting in Ukraine.

On the same day, Russia hit back by warning Ukraine against violence on May 9. Former president and deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, called on Zelenskyy to stop “verbal provocations” and said, “In the case of a real provocation on Victory Day, no one guarantees that May 10 will come in Kyiv.”