MOSCOW (dpa-AFX) – Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin has praised the “special military operation” in Ukraine as a “heroic” mission by the Russian army. All plans would be implemented, Putin said on Friday in Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium in front of tens of thousands of cheering Russians, with a view to the war in the neighboring country. Shortly thereafter, the broadcast on state television was canceled without any reason being given. The television showed recorded images. It was initially unclear what had happened. Instead, recorded images ran.
In the stadium, people waved the Russian state flag and flags with the letter Z, which stands for the “special military operation”. People shouted: “For Russia. For victory.” Above the stage on which Putin appeared was written: “For a world without Nazism”. The reason for the performance was the eighth anniversary of the incorporation of the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea on March 18, 2014./mau/DP/ngu