A lone police officer with a megaphone shouted at a confused crowd in central Moscow to disperse — the traditional Victory Day fireworks last weekend having been canceled without warning.

It was a fitting wind-down to the most muted celebration Russia had witnessed in decades. No military hardware rolled across Red Square. Few foreign guests attended. Across the Russian capital, the internet was blacked out, a move driven by fear that Ukraine could disrupt the World War II commemoration with its expanding reach of long-range drone attacks.