Vladimir Putin chatted easily with China's Xi Jinping as a pro-Kremlin US actor sat nearby watching tanks and missiles roll across the cobblestones of Red Square.

Russia on Friday paraded combat drones that its forces use in the war in Ukraine on Moscow's Red Square in what state TV said was a first. President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and more than two dozen other foreign leaders looked on as various truck-mounted Russian-made drones were driven across the vast square on their launchers,

Chinese President Xi Jinping stood next to Vladimir Putin in Moscow as thousands of Russia troops and military vehicles participated in the Victory Day parade.