A road of thousands of kilometers to see Putin. Volodymyr Zyablytsky came to Moscow from his distant Siberia to attend a “patriotic” megaconcert organized on the occasion of the anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine, writes AFP.

Like him, tens of thousands of people gathered at Luzhniki Stadium on Wednesday for a show that glorified the military, condemned the “Ukrainian neo-Nazi regime” and featured an unexpected but expected guest, Vladimir Putin.

“The president really needs our support right now. (…) He is going in the right direction,” said Volodymyr Zyablytskyi, who came from his Kemerovo region, located 3,000 kilometers from the capital, especially for this occasion.

“We are in full solidarity with him and want our country to end this war as soon as possible. And for this we need mobilization around the national leader,” the 59-year-old businessman told AFP.

There are almost no seats left in the 80,000-capacity stadium. It was a beautiful winter day with few clouds. It was -15 degrees, but people came, some even with small children in their arms.

The concert begins. The crowd waves dozens of Russian flags, which are distributed free of charge at the entrance. On stage, heroes talk about their military exploits, then folk artists from young to old sing songs about war, sometimes romantic, sometimes rhythmic, sometimes balanced.

“It’s positive,” says Juliana, a 47-year-old lawyer. “This consolidation of national unity is reminiscent of the Great Patriotic War,” named after Russia’s struggle against Nazi Germany, whose cult became a pillar for the Kremlin.

“War for survival”

Since the start of the storming in Ukraine a year ago, the authorities have taken up the militarization of society, public space, and schools, organizing patriotic events.

Many Russians subscribe to this discourse, which presents the conflict as a defensive measure to preserve Slavic and Russian-speaking unity in the face of what Moscow sees as the fall of Ukrainian power into the clutches of the West.

“This is a war for survival, a war for the destruction of Russia (…). The decisive phase of this struggle with the West has begun,” said 47-year-old musician Ivan Tkatsov, accompanied by his minor daughters.

Ukrainian children on stage

During the performance, children go on stage. The presenter says that these are Ukrainian children who were rescued by a Russian soldier and taken to Russia during the battle near Mariupol. One of the little girls took the floor and, after saying a few words of thanks, burst into tears.

Russians are accused of kidnapping thousands of Ukrainian children and handing them over to Russia. The Kremlin insists that this is a legal adoption.

Then, after more than an hour of waiting in the cold, Vladimir Putin finally arrived to cheers from the crowd. “I told you he would come,” the husband euphorically shouted to his wife, hugging her.

“Today, the (military) hierarchy told me that the battles are being fought on our historical lands, for our people,” the president said. A short speech that ends with the Russian national anthem and three “Hurrays,” the battle cry of the army.

Vladimir Putin quickly left.

“As always, impressive,” 18-year-old student Andriy Moiseev soberly comments on the president, whom he sees in person for the first time.

“It raises the patriotic spirit admirably, shows us the direction, and we go together,” continued the young man, his nose red from the cold. He promises that if he is taken to fight in Ukraine, he will go. (AFP)

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