Watch: China’s Xi joins Putin at Russia Victory Day parade in Moscow

Russia marks the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II on Friday with a military parade attended by China’s President Xi Jinping after three years of devastating war in Ukraine.

President Vladimir Putin will speak at the parade where thousands of Russian soldiers usually march by and drive military hardware such as intercontinental ballistic missiles and tanks past Lenin’s Mausoleum on Red Square.

The Kremlin said military units from 13 countries, including China, will take part in the parade along with Russian troops.

But the Ukraine war, Europe’s deadliest since World War II, haunts this celebration. Ukraine attacked Moscow with drones for several days this week, and Moscow and Kyiv accused each other of breaking a 72-hour ceasefire declared by Putin.

The Kremlin says the attendance of Russian allies such as Xi, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and several dozen leaders from the former Soviet Union, Africa, Asia and Latin America shows Russia is not isolated from the wider world even if Moscow’s former World War II Western allies want to stay away. From Europe, the leaders of Serbia and Slovakia are attending.