The presidents of Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of betraying the Soviet victory over the Nazis as their countries celebrated the end of the Second World War.

In a speech at this year's grandiose Victory Day military parade on Red Square on Thursday, Vladimir Putin said the “lessons of the past war are still relevant” and that Russia would continue to “ensure high combat capability” of its armed forces.

“Today, we see how a number of countries are deliberately distorting the events of the war, and how those who, forgetting honour and human dignity, served the Nazis are now being glorified, and how shamelessly they lie to their children and betray their ancestors,” he claimed in a comment aimed at neighbouring Ukraine.

Russia annexed Crimea and supported separatists in eastern Ukraine after protests brought a pro-Western government that Moscow dubbed a “fascist junta” to power in Kiev in 2014.

Ukraine established a national holiday in January for Stepan Bandera, the leader of wartime nationalists who briefly backed the Nazi invasion and were implicated in pogroms against Poles and Jews.