Victory Day, celebrated on May 9, is Russia’s most important secular holiday, reflecting its wartime sacrifice. But it’s also used by the Kremlin to bolster patriotism and regain the superpower prestige it lost when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

Russia marks the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two on Friday with a military parade attended by China's Xi Jinping that Moscow fears Ukraine will try to disrupt after three years of devastating war.

President Vladimir Putin is hosting Russia’s celebrations for the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. The outcome of the war he started in Ukraine remains far from certain.