内容摘要：Illia Novikov in Kyiv, and Matthew Lee and Byron Tau in Washington, contributed to this report.

Illia Novikov in Kyiv, and Matthew Lee and Byron Tau in Washington, contributed to this report.

Security is expected to be tight for Friday’s centerpiece parade., including China’s President Xi Jinping and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, arrived on Wednesday.

to coincide with the celebrations in Moscow. In March, the United States proposed a 30-day truce in the war, which Ukraine accepted, but the Kremlin has held out for ceasefireVice President JD Vance said Wednesday that the U.S. appreciated Ukraine’s willingness for a ceasefire, but the U.S. is trying to move beyond that. “What the Russians have said is ‘a 30-day ceasefire is not in our strategic interests.’ So we’ve tried to move beyond the obsession with the 30-day ceasefire and more on the, what would a long-term settlement look like?” he said.Vance said that the next steps are to have the Russians and Ukrainians directly negotiating.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last weekend that his country cannot provide security assurances to foreign officials planning to visit the Moscow events. Russia could stage provocations and later attempt to blame Ukraine, he said.“Our position is very simple: we cannot take responsibility for what happens on the territory of the Russian Federation,” he said. “They are the ones providing your security, and we will not be offering any guarantees.”

Zelenskyy said that he had instructed Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry to advise foreign delegations against visiting Russia during this period.

Baltic countries Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which border Russia and its Kaliningrad exclave, announced plans to close their airspace to the planes carrying Serbia’s and Slovakia’s leaders to Moscow this week for the celebrations out of safety concerns, officials there said.In this photo provided by Ukraine’s 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Separate Mechanized Brigade press service, a man waits to hear about his missing wife as rescuers clear the rubble of a multi-storey residential building destroyed a day before by a Russian airstrike, in Kostiantynivka, Ukraine, on Thursday, May 8, 2025. (Iryna Rybakova/Ukraine’s 93rd Mechanized Brigade via AP)

In this photo provided by Ukraine’s 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Separate Mechanized Brigade press service, a man waits to hear about his missing wife as rescuers clear the rubble of a multi-storey residential building destroyed a day before by a Russian airstrike, in Kostiantynivka, Ukraine, on Thursday, May 8, 2025. (Iryna Rybakova/Ukraine’s 93rd Mechanized Brigade via AP)Meanwhile at the Kremlin, Putin held talks with

, whom the Russian leader earlier described as Moscow’s “main guest” at Friday’s Victory Day festivities. In the evening, Putin hosted Xi andfor a gala dinner in an apparent effort to showcase Russia’s global clout.