Russia marked the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two with a major military parade that went off without any reports of Ukrainian attacks despite three years of devastating war.

The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in World War Two, including many millions in Ukraine, but pushed Nazi forces back to Berlin, where Adolf Hitler committed suicide and the red Soviet Victory Banner was raised over the Reichstag in May 1945.

Events to mark the holiday in the occupied territories seem to be an effort to show Russian control of land it has captured.