For Victory Day, Putin Gives Russia Key Territory and Battle with the West

TOM O'CONNOR 

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For the first time since the inaugural event 77 years ago, Russia marks its World War II Victory Day in the heat of a conflict with what it claims to be forces associated with its old Nazi foe.

And once again, Moscow seeks to expand the territory under its control in Europe, seeking to establish an effective land bridge that would leave Ukraine at a loss for much of its Black Sea coastline, while uniting Russia's modern borders with allied breakaway states in the Donbas and the already annexed Crimean Peninsula.