What did Zelensky's decree on the Moscow parade actually say?
A look back at the decree signed on 8 May 2026 and a related development in Hungary–Ukraine relations two days earlier.
What did Ukraine's president sign on 8 May 2026, and why did it draw attention? According to reports at the time, President Volodymyr Zelensky signed Decree No. 374/2026, which "allowed" the holding of the Victory Day parade in Moscow on 9 May. The decree excluded the Red Square area from a list of targets for strikes for the duration of the parade. On 9 May Ukraine itself marked Europe Day.
The wording matters. The decree did not offer a general pause: the exemption covered one named location and applied only for the time of the parade. Everything else in the decree's framing, as reported, rested on that narrow carve-out from a target list.
A separate thread with Hungary
Two days earlier, on 6 May 2026, the Ukrainian president announced that Hungary had returned cash and gold seized from Ukraine's Oschadbank. The assets had been held after the outgoing Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, ordered the government to keep them for 60 days.
The two items are unconnected in the reporting, but together they show how much of Ukraine's public agenda in early May 2026 was handled through presidential announcements and decrees, on matters ranging from military targeting to bilateral disputes.
