RUSSIA PERSPECTIVE

Moscow chose not to engage on ceasefire violations. State press — TASS above all — shifted the narrative to a separate front: alleged Ukrainian attacks on a TASS photojournalist. A Russian senator called the incident a 'gross violation of international law'; a lawmaker accused Zelensky of hypocrisy on press freedom.

The Moscow Times — independent Russian-language press in exile — took a radically different line, covering five deaths in occupied Crimea from a Ukrainian strike while also relaying Kyiv's accusation that Russia violated the truce. The fault line between state press and exile press is characteristic of Russian coverage since 2022.

The May 9 parade — and parallel announcements of nuclear missile tests — are the real political message Moscow wants to send. Several Russian regions cancelled their local parades on security grounds, which Kyiv immediately framed as an admission of vulnerability. Moscow neither confirmed nor denied concentrating air defences around the capital.