President Vladimir Putin declared Tuesday that the West has unleashed a "real war" against Russia amid a scaled-down Victory Day parade in Moscow that is believed to represent the impact of the country's invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking as Russian troops marched on Moscow’s Red Square, Putin said that the West had forgotten the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany in 1945, claiming that Russia wants to see a peaceful future.

"Today, the civilization is once again at a decisive, turning point and an actual war has been unleashed against our homeland again," Putin said during a 10-minute address. "But we fended off international terrorism, we will protect residents of Donbas too and ensure our security."

"Our heroic ancestors proved that there is nothing stronger, more powerful and more reliable than our unity. There is nothing in the world stronger than our love for the Motherland," Putin continued.

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The Russian president continued, saying that the entire country is in support of the "special military operation" in Ukraine.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly 14 months ago, Putin has maintained that the West's "untamed ambitions, arrogance and impunity" are to blame for the conflict. 

He has also continued to describe Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a puppet.

Victory Day is Russia's celebration of Nazi Germany's defeat during World War II, known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War.

Some 8,000 troops took part in the parade in Moscow’s Red Square on Tuesday — the lowest number since 2008. Even the procession in 2020, the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, featured approximately 13,000 soldiers, and last year, around 11,000 troops. There was no fly-over of military jets and the event was shorter than the usual hour-long duration.

"This is weak. There are no tanks," Yelena Orlova told The Associated Press while watching the vehicles rumble down Moscow’s Novy Arbat Avenue upon leaving Red Square. "We’re upset, but that’s all right; it will be better in the future."

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The parade comes as thousands of Russian military personnel have died since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. 

The Kremlin’s forces deployed in Ukraine are defending a front line stretching more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles), presumably thinning the ranks of troops available for such displays.

"This is supposed to be a showpiece for Russian military might. But so much of that military might have already been mauled in Ukraine that Russia has very little to show on its parade in Red Square," said Keir Giles, a Russia expert at London’s Chatham House think tank.

Putin was joined on the Red Square by foreign leaders from former Soviet countries – Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. 

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According to state media, the Victory Day celebrations across the country have been muted this year, after the cancellation of events in other cities over security concerns. Before delivering his speech, Putin walked from the Kremlin to the Red Square where ranks of military personnel were massed. 

Putin concluded his speech with, "To Russia! To our brave armed forces! To Victory!"

On Monday, Zelenskyy announced that he was moving the date of Ukraine's Victory Day celebration to May 8, which aligns with the date Western allies celebrate the WWII victory, and renaming it Europe Day.

"We will not allow lies as if the victory in that war could have taken place without the participation of any country or nation. As then we destroyed evil together, so now we are destroying a similar evil together," Zelenskyy said.

He continued: "Unfortunately, evil has returned. Although now it is another aggressor, the goal is the same – enslavement or destruction. And just as then we relied on the joint strength of free nations, so now we fight against evil together with the free world, together with free Europe. And we will prevail! It will be the Day of our victory."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A cross-party delegation of Australian lawmakers said Tuesday they met with U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and called on her to help drop the charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for the publication of classified U.S. military documents.

The "Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Group" said it told the U.S. Kennedy about the "widespread concern" in Australia about the ongoing detention of Assange, who they hope to bring home to Australia.

Assange is in the midst of a legal battle over his potential extradition to the U.S. over Wikileaks' 2010 publication of top secret cables detailing war crimes committed by the U.S. government in the Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, detention camp, Iraq and Afghanistan. The materials leaked to him by a whistleblower also expose instances of the CIA engaging in torture and rendition. 

Last month marked 13 years since Wikileaks published a video showing the U.S. military gunning down civilians in Iraq, including two Reuters journalists.

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The meeting with the U.S. envoy comes nearly a month after the four-year anniversary of Assange's detention in London. The Australian journalist has been held at London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison since he was removed from the Ecuadorian Embassy on April 11, 2019, for breaching jail conditions. He had sought asylum at the embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden over allegations he raped two women. The investigations into the sexual assault allegations were eventually dropped.

Assange wrote a letter ahead of the coronation of King Charles III last week inviting him to visit Belmarsh Prison.

U.S. President Joe Biden is scheduled to visit Australia later this month for the Quad leaders' summit.

"There are a range of views about Assange in the Australian community and the members of the Parliamentary Group reflect that diversity of views," the Australian lawmakers said in a statement Tuesday after meeting Kennedy in Canberra. "But what is not in dispute in the Group is that Mr. Assange is being treated unjustly."

Assange would face 17 charges for receiving, possessing and communicating classified information to the public under the espionage act and one charge alleging a conspiracy to commit computer intrusion if he is extradited to the U.S., and could be sentenced to as many as 175 years in an American maximum security prison.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in an interview last week he was "frustrated" there has yet to be a diplomatic solution to Assange's continued detention and that he was concerned about the Wikileaks founder's mental health.

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"I can't do more than make very clear what my position is and the U.S. administration is certainly very aware of what the Australian government's position is," Albanese said. "There is nothing to be served by his ongoing incarceration."

Last year, the editors and publishers of U.S. and European news outlets that worked with Assange on the publication of excerpts from more than 250,000 documents he obtained in the Cablegate leak — The Guardian, The New York Times, Le Monde, Der Spiegel and El País — wrote an open letter calling for the U.S. to end its prosecution of Assange.

The Cablegate documents Assange is facing prosecution over were leaked to WikiLeaks by then-U.S. soldier Chelsea Manning, who in 2013 was convicted of violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses.

The Obama administration decided not to indict Assange after Wikileaks published the cables in 2010 because it would have had to do the same to journalists from major news outlets. Former President Trump's Justice Department, however, later moved to indict Assange under the Espionage Act, and the Biden administration has continued to pursue his prosecution.

Assange's case has received the attention of some lawmakers on Capitol Hill, with Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., writing a letter to the Justice Department demanding it drop the charges against him. The other signatures on the letter are Democratic Reps. Jamaal Bowman, N.Y.; Greg Casar, Texas; Cori Bush, Mo.; Ilhan Omar, Minn.; Ayanna Pressley, Mass.; and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, N.Y.

Under the Trump administration, the CIA reportedly had plans to kill Assange over the publication of sensitive agency hacking tools known as "Vault 7," which the agency said represented "the largest data loss in CIA history," according to a 2021 Yahoo report. The agency had discussions "at the highest levels" of the administration about plans to assassinate Assange in London. Following orders from then-CIA director Mike Pompeo, the agency had also drawn up kill "sketches" and "options."

The CIA had advanced plans to kidnap and rendition Assange and had made a political decision to charge him, according to the report.

Wikileaks has also published internal communications in 2016 between the Democratic National Committee and then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign. The communications revealed the DNC's attempts to boost Clinton in that year's Democratic primary.

Reuters contributed to this report.