MOSCOW — It was one of many largest public celebrations of the struggle that Russia has seen because the full-scale invasion of Ukraine — an overflow crowd on the nation’s largest stadium, cheering photos of destruction and songs about spilling blood and conquering Ukraine.

Formally, the occasion was tied to Russia’s annual Defenders of the Fatherland vacation, honoring veterans, however coming two days earlier than the anniversary of the invasion, it served as a televised present of well-liked assist for the struggle, the armed forces waging it and the person behind it, President Vladimir V. Putin.

“I adore it!” mentioned Aleksandr, 47,  a lawyer from Moscow, who was waving a flag excessive up within the stands whereas a performer rapped in regards to the Ukrainian territories Mr. Putin claimed to have annexed final 12 months. “I don’t perceive how can I not assist it,” he mentioned of a struggle that the Kremlin forbids folks to name a struggle, referring to it as a “particular army operation.”

The extremely choreographed live performance and rally romanticized Russia’s army and the struggle; whereas performers sang, the screens all through the stadium didn’t present them, however as an alternative performed movies of troopers preventing and firing heavy weapons, and destroyed buildings. Subsequent to the doorway to the stadium, volunteers sewed camouflage nets.

In uniform, First Lt. Nikolai Romanenko, carried out a rap “remix” that includes the favored World Struggle II track “Katyusha,” with up to date lyrics together with, “I’m not afraid to stain my fingers in blood as much as the elbow.”

One other individual carried out a rap-ballad about “demons buried in Azovstal,” the Ukrainian fighters who held out for weeks in a metal plant in Mariupol, together with lyrics in Ukrainian, with a video mocking the Ukrainian ladies who pleaded for the evacuation of their husbands, sons and brothers.

Grigory Leps, considered one of Russia’s best-known pop singers, sang a track fusing the Second World Struggle recruitment slogan “Homeland: Mom Is asking” with the up to date pro-war chorus “We don’t abandon our personal.”

In all, the celebration at Luzhniki Stadium mirrored the Kremlin’s marketing campaign to normalize the struggle for the Russian populace, a tacit recognition that it’ll not finish any time quickly. The occasion even featured some acknowledgment of Russian casualties, although not their monumental scale.

“They’re attempting to militarize the entire society,” mentioned Grigory B. Yudin, a political philosophy professor on the Moscow Faculty of Social and Financial Sciences, who didn’t attend the occasion.

Tickets had been free, distributed principally to state staff and college students, who got the time off from work or research and supplied with round-trip transportation. Matvey, 19, a college pupil from town of Tambov, mentioned a number of buses from two universities there had traveled greater than eight hours every option to the live performance. A number of attendees from the Moscow area mentioned that they had been inspired by their employers to go.

“Individuals had been bused there, compelled to attend; we’ve got studies of that from a number of universities” mentioned Professor Yudin.

“Putin coerces folks, lures them into taking part, and these college students are promised free passes on exams,” he continued. “He desires each the full mobilization of the nation and the full passivity, a complete acceptance,” an strategy he described as “schizophrenic.”

The 81,000-seat stadium appeared greater than full regardless of temperatures far under freezing, with folks within the aisles and on the sphere, and hundreds extra on the grounds exterior. And for a lot of of them — not less than these keen to talk with an American journalist — the passion appeared real, even when they’ve been touched by the struggle’s losses.

“I assist it, sure, as a result of it was excessive time to begin this,” Katya, 26, who works for an aesthetic medication clinic within the Moscow area, mentioned of the struggle. She cited what she known as the struggling of many pals from the Donetsk area of Ukraine, the place Moscow’s separatist proxies started preventing Kyiv eight years earlier than Russia’s full-scale invasion final 12 months.

However Katya admitted that she wished the struggle had ended already, and mentioned considered one of her college classmates had been killed. It’s a delicate matter — any criticism of the struggle may end up in a jail sentence — and she or he, like some others interviewed, declined to provide her surname.

“I don’t perceive why it’s turn into so drawn out,” she mentioned. “It’s a pity: Everybody of their households already has not less than some acquaintances who died.”

Regardless of her assist for the struggle, she voiced some shock on the enthusiasm round her on Wednesday, tacitly acknowledging how synthetic such public shows might be.

“What impressed me essentially the most was that I may see folks had been genuinely coming, not coerced,” she mentioned. “I additionally got here right here willingly myself.”

Her husband, Stanislav, 31, had obtained tickets to the occasion from his job, and mentioned he was glad he had come. “It was very emotional,” he mentioned.

Live performance M.C.s shared tales about a few of the Russian troopers preventing and falling in Ukraine and invited their family members onstage. The Kremlin has not conceded the dimensions of Russian casualties — about 200,000 killed or wounded, Western officers say — and has usually prevented releasing the names of the useless.

Boris I. Lugin spoke of his son Anatoly’s loss of life in battle. “Our activity is to do the whole lot to win: Each beat of our coronary heart for victory, each beat,” he informed the group. “That is how I reside my life. A soldier’s father.”

A youngsters’s choir sang a track, “Greetings Soldier,” written as a message to troops on the entrance, within the mould of the letters Russian schoolchildren have been requested to write down as homework.

One other group of kids from occupied Mariupol had been dropped at the stage, together with a soldier named Yuri L. Gagarin, code identify “Angel,” who was launched as having saved 367 youngsters from the devastated metropolis — although how he did so was not defined. As photos of the destruction performed on the display, with out addressing the Russian bombardment that had leveled a lot of town — young children onstage lined their ears.

Ukraine and rights teams say that Russia has stolen hundreds of kids from occupied territory and has killed numerous civilians in Mariupol and elsewhere. However nobody onstage requested about these youngsters’s dad and mom. One M.C. inspired the youngsters to hug Mr. Gagarin, who was adorned with an “Order of Braveness” for his military service, in thanks.

“These are our kids, and we, the Russian Military, should shield these folks and these youngsters,” mentioned Mr. Gagarin, whose identify echoes that of the primary individual in house, Yuri A. Gagarin, a hero to many Russians. “We’re a powerful military; we’re a strong military. However your assist is necessary to us. We’re collectively; we’re going to win.”

It was the identical message delivered by each speaker on the occasion: Social unity and assist for the troops from all strata of society are important.

Mr. Putin made a quick look, acknowledging the dissonance that individuals had been “gathered for a festive occasion” whereas troopers had been preventing and dying, and inspired all Russians to hitch the struggle effort.

“Even youngsters who write letters to our fighters on the entrance are essential,” he mentioned. “All our individuals are Defenders of the Fatherland.”

Anna Vasilyevna, 87, who had come to the live performance from Solnechnogorsk, 45 miles from Moscow, mentioned her father died preventing in World Struggle II. She fully supported Mr. Putin, as a result of “now the whole lot is identical because it was again then,” she mentioned, echoing the Kremlin’s propaganda equating Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with Soviets preventing Nazis.

As she left the stadium, she handed an exhibit of “Heroes and Acts of Bravery.” On one facet of the panels had been heroes from World Struggle II. On one other, photos and descriptions of those that died invading Ukraine.

“And now we’ve got the identical heroes,” she mentioned.

Alina Lobzina contributed reporting from London, and Ivan Nechepurenko from Tbilisi, Georgia.