Donald Trump said Russia and Ukraine agreed to a three-day May 9-11 ceasefire and a 1,000-for-1,000 prisoner exchange; Russian aide Yuri Ushakov confirmed Moscow's acceptability, and Anadolu reported Zelenskyy also confirmed the truce and swap. [1]

Friday's paper said Victory Day would test the truce, not merely stage the parade, and Saturday's brief rule is simple: the receipts are silence on the line and buses at the exchange point.

CBC and NPR had already framed the parade as smaller, more secure, and stripped of the heavy-hardware spectacle that once did the Kremlin's work. [2][3]

X can call the truce propaganda or humiliation; neither frame matters until both sides' violation reports and prisoner lists are public.

The useful story is not that a ceasefire was announced on Victory Day, but whether a holiday ritual can produce verifiable quiet in a war that has turned ritual into another battlefield.

-- KATYA VOLKOV, Moscow