Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed that "as in 1945, victory will be ours". As he also congratulated former Soviet nations on the 77th anniversary of Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II.
"Today, our soldiers, as their ancestors, are fighting side by side to liberate their native land from the Nazi filth with the confidence that, as in 1945, victory will be ours,"
"Today, it is our common duty to prevent the rebirth of Nazism which caused so much suffering to the peoples of different countries," "new generations may be worthy of the memory of their fathers and grandfathers".
"Our sacred duty is to hold back the ideological successors of those who were defeated" in World War II, which Moscow anoints"the great patriotic war," said Putin.
He also said he hoped"all Ukraine's inhabitants a peaceful and just future".