(Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will come to Moscow in May to attend the commemorations of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, TASS state news agency reported late on Tuesday, citing Palestinian envoy to Russia as saying.
“He has an invitation, he has agreed, he will be there,” the ambassador, Abdel Hafiz Nofal, told TASS.
The Kremlin said in December that it had invited “many countries” to attend the 80th anniversary of the war’s end, which Russia celebrates on May 9. The Victory Day, as Russia calls it, has become the country’s most important secular holiday.
It remains to be seen how many foreign leaders will come to Moscow this year, which will take place more than three years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has confirmed he will attend, and the Kremlin said that it expects that North Korean soldiers will take part in the key event, the Red Square parade.
Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov said in January that militaries from 19 “friendly countries” had been invited to participate in the parade.
Moscow defines “unfriendly” countries as those that have joined a barrage of Western-led economic sanctions in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Sandra Maler)