On a Victory Day without new victories, Putin's speech keeps the world guessing

Global leaders and defense officials had spent weeks speculating what Russian President Vladimir Putin might reveal about his Ukraine plans in a speech at Russia's Victory Day commemorations Monday. They'll have to keep guessing -- the leader offered few clues on the direction of the conflict.

UK defense chief Ben Wallace had suggested that Putin may use this historic day to escalate his so-called "special military operation" in Ukraine and declare an outright war. Even if that had been Putin's plan, he was unlikely to follow through after Wallace's comments, not wanting to appear to his Western foes as such an easy nut to crack.

Instead, the Russian president used his speech to blend history with the present, banking on Russian nationalism on its most patriotic of holidays to justify his war.

In his reverence for Soviet war heroes who helped defeat Nazi Germany in World War II -- the reason Russia celebrates Victory Day -- Putin referred to new Nazi threats in Ukraine, repeating his baseless justification for the invasion as an operation to "denazify" the nation.

In reference to the threat of NATO troops in Europe, Putin said: "Everything indicated that a clash with neo-Nazis, Banderites [Ukrainian nationalists], on whom the United States and their younger partners counted on, would be inevitable."