Putin makes his first public appearance since the invasion of Ukraine.
President Putin on Friday made his first public appearance since he ordered Russian troops to invade Ukraine last month, addressing a cheering crowd of tens of thousands of Russians at Moscow’s largest stadium.
The Luzhniki arena was covered with posters that read “For a world without Nazism” — a nod to one of Mr. Putin’s stated justifications for launching the war in Ukraine, the false claim that Ukraine is run by Nazis.
As he walked to center stage, Mr. Putin proclaimed that Russians “have not had such unity for a long time.”
However, that sense of unity has been called into question by reports that the government mobilized state-linked workers to attend the event, which was officially dedicated to mark the eighth anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea but became an expression of support for the recent invasion of Ukraine.