<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday at Moscow's Red Square Victory Day parade that the world was at a "turning point" and claimed a "war" had been unleashed against Russia.</b></span><br></div><div><br></div><div>He vowed victory and said Russia's future "rests on" its soldiers fighting in Ukraine.</div><div><br></div><div>The traditional Soviet-style event celebrating Moscow's victory over the Nazis took place amid security fears, 15 months into Russia's Ukraine offensive.</div><div><br></div><div>"Today civilisation is again at a decisive turning point," Putin said at the parade, which included elderly veterans and soldiers from Russia's Ukraine campaign.</div><div><br></div><div>"A war has been unleashed against our motherland," he claimed.</div><div>He called for Russia to be victorious: "For Russia, for our armed forces, for victory! Hurrah!"</div><div><br></div><div>The Russian leader has increasingly portrayed the campaign in Ukraine as an existential conflict, which he says the West has escalated by supporting the Ukrainian government.</div><div><br></div><div>Putin told soldiers taking part in Moscow's Ukraine campaign, several hundreds of whom were present at the Red Square parade, that "the whole country is with you."&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>"There is nothing more important now than your combat effort," he said.</div><div>"The security of the country rests on you today, the future of our statehood and our people depend on you."</div><div><br></div><div>Putin also railed against "Western globalist elites", accusing them of sowing conflicts and "coups" around the world.</div><div><br></div><div>"Their goal, and there is nothing new here, is to achieve the collapse and destruction of our country," he said.</div><div><br></div><div>The longtime Russian leader vowed that Moscow would overcome this.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>"But we have rebuffed international terrorism, we will protect the people of (eastern Ukraine's) Donbas, we will ensure our security," he said.</div><div><br></div><div>This appeared to be a reference to an unprecedented series of attacks on Russian soil in the run-up to the Victory Day parade, a central event under Putin's rule. - AFP</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>