80th Anniversary of World War II | 13 May 2025

Source: TH 

On 9^th May 2025, Russia marked the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat in World War II, with President Vladimir Putin leading a grand military parade featuring tanks, missiles, and troops through Red Square. 

• Nazi Germany surrendered on 7th May 1945, with the act of military surrender taking effect on 8th May 1945, following the Battle of Berlin (20th April – 2nd May 1945).  
• Russia celebrates Victory Day on 9th May instead of 8th May (like Western nations) due to differences in time zones. 
• World War II (1939–1945) was the most widespread and devastating conflict in history, fought between the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, Japan) and the Allied powers (including the US, France, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and China). 

• The war began on 1^st September 1939 with Germany’s invasion of Poland, prompting Britain and France to declare war on Germany. 
• Under Operation Barbarossa, Germany invaded the Soviet Union, but was halted during the Battle of Stalingrad (1942–1943). 
• World War II ended with the unconditional surrender of Germany in May 1945, following the fall of Berlin, and the surrender of Japan in September 1945 after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.