Russia fired cruise missiles at Kyiv on Tuesday and paraded troops and vintage equipment across Red Square in a curtailed celebration of victory in World War Two, while Kyiv fended off the air strikes and hosted the head of the European Union.

In a fiery 10-minute speech in front of the Kremlin walls, Russian President Vladimir Putin thundered against "Western global elites" and said Russia again faced an existential threat.

"Today, civilisation is again at a decisive turning point. A real war has been unleashed against our homeland," said the Russian leader, who last year ordered what the West calls an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, destroying cities and killing thousands of civilians.

May 9, the date in Moscow's time zone of Germany's May 8 surrender in 1945, is the most important holiday in Russia under Putin, who casts his invasion of Ukraine as analogous to the threat Russia faced from the Nazis in World War Two.