Russian President Vladimir Putin's Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov says the Kremlin has not invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to attend this year's Victory Day parade in Moscow to be held on June 24, as "Ukraine has not signaled a desire to share the joy of Victory Day."
"I told you that the emphasis is on renewing invitations to CIS leaders. There are also our partners who have expressed their will to come, which is a pleasure. As we know, Ukraine is not a de facto, and in many respects de jure, part of the CIS. They've been showing no willingness to work within these structures in any way and have never signaled their will to share the joy of Victory Day," Peskov told journalists, as reported by an UNIAN correspondent in Russia on June 10.
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A number of Russian media, referring to deputy foreign minister Andrei Rudenko, said Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko would attend the event.
Meanwhile, representatives of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan have already declared readiness to visit the parade in Moscow. Also, there came confirmations from Serbia, Croatia, and the Russian-occupied Georgian territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
As was earlier reported, Russian-backed occupation administrations in the self-proclaimed "Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics" ("DPR" and "LPR") planned to hold the Victory Day parades in the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk on June 24.
