Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed what Russia calls its special operation in Ukraine, appearing on stage at a rally at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium on Friday in front of thousands of people waving Russian flags.
Moscow police said more than 200,000 people were in and around the Luzhniki stadium for the rally and concert marking the eighth anniversary of Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula, seized from Ukraine, according to AP News.
The event included well-known singer Oleg Gazmanov singing “Made in the U.S.S.R.,” with the opening lines “Ukraine and Crimea, Belarus and Moldova, It’s all my country.”
As Putin prepared to take the stage, speakers praised him as fighting “Nazism” in Ukraine, a claim flatly rejected by leaders across the globe.
Meanwhile, Russian forces continued to pound the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and launched a barrage of missiles on the outskirts of the western city of Lviv.
The early morning attack on Lviv’s edge was the closest strike yet to the center of the city, which has become a crossroads for people fleeing from other parts of Ukraine and for others entering to deliver aid or fight.