Children have dressed up as fighter jets and tanks as Russia holds a huge military celebration in Moscow.
Russian children have been decked out in pretend military hard-wear adorned with the country's Z symbol, which the Kremlin is pushing as a rallying point amid the war effort.
The kids were dressed up in their weapon-glorifying finery to mark Victory Day, the anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.
The annual event, which sees thousands of troops and tanks paraded through Red Square, has taken on heightened significance following Putin's invasion.
Many costumes include the letter Z - which in recent weeks has come to represent the illegal campaign in Ukraine that lying Russian leaders have branded a "special military operation".
Thanks to relentless propaganda on state media, the majority of Russians are unaware of the devastating toll the invasion is having, or the catalogue of war crime allegations against their troops.
It is unclear whether those in Russia see a similarity between the Z symbol and the Nazi's swastika, which adorned buildings, uniforms and fighting machines during WWII.
During his long awaited speech in Moscow today, Vlad imir Putin evoked the memory of Soviet heroism in that war to urge his army towards victory in Ukraine.
Addressing massed ranks of servicemen on Red Square on the 77th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany, Putin condemned what he called external threats to weaken and split Russia, and repeated familiar arguments he had used to justify its invasion - that NATO was creating threats right next to its borders.
He directly addressed soldiers fighting in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine which Russia has pledged to "liberate" from Kyiv.
"Defending the Motherland when its fate is being decided has always been sacred," he said.
"Today you are fighting for our people in Donbas, for the security of Russia, our homeland."
Putin's 11-minute speech on day 75 of the invasion offered no assessment of progress in the war and gave no indication of how long it might continue.
He has repeatedly likened the war - which he casts as a battle against dangerous "Nazi"-inspired nationalists in Ukraine - to the challenge the Soviet Union faced when Adolf Hitler invaded in 1941.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has said it is Russia that is staging a "bloody re-enactment of Nazism" in Ukraine.
It is estimated that more than 25,000 Russian troops, including conscripts, have perished as a result of the war.
