Aging, allegedly ailing Vladimir Putin has been mocked over his puffy, strangely altered face after the fearful, paranoid Russian dictator made a rare public appearance in Moscow over the weekend. The swollen-cheeked 73-year-old despot was spotted at an unusually quiet Victory Day parade to mark the 81st anniversary of the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.

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The event, shrunken because of security fears, adds to a sense that Moscow and other Russian cities can no longer be insulated from the war.

The Kremlin repeated Russian ⁠President ⁠Vladimir Putin's assertion that the ⁠war in Ukraine was almost over on Tuesday, after Ukrainian ​President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Moscow had no intention of ending it.

Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of disregarding U.S. President Donald Trump’s request to stop their attacks