LONDON (AP) — Former England defender Millie Bright announced her retirement from soccer with immediate effect at the age of 32 on Wednesday after “playing injured for the last six years.”
“I'm tired. I'm just a human,” Bright said in an emotional video posted by Chelsea, her club since 2014.
Bright, who hasn't played for Chelsea since February because of an ankle problem, withdrew herself from selection for last year's European Championship — won by England — for mental and physical health reasons.
She played 88 times for England, having a key role in the national team's title-winning campaign at Euro 2022, and won eight league titles with Chelsea.
Chelsea said Bright will remain part of the club as a trustee of its foundation and as a club ambassador.
“I'm ready to venture off into life and to do bigger things with the club, and to do that is really, really special to me,” she said. “You might losing me on the pitch but you're certainly not losing me as being a part of Chelsea.”
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
FILE - England's Millie Bright laughs during a press conference ahead of the FIFA Women's World Cup Final between Spain and England at Stadium Australia in Sydney, Australia, Saturday, Aug. 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr, file)
FILE - Chelsea's Millie Bright runs during warmup before the women's Champions League semifinals, second leg, soccer match between Chelsea FC and FC Barcelona at Stamford Bridge in London, Sunday, April 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Dave Shopland, file)
Russia's traditional parade marking the 81st anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II this year will take place without tanks, missiles and other military equipment, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement late Tuesday.
It will be the first time in nearly two decades — and in the more than four years of Russia's war in Ukraine — that no military equipment will rumble through Moscow's Red Square on May 9, the day Russia celebrates its most important secular holiday. The Kremlin has used it to showcase its military might and global clout.
Victory Day parades on Red Square involved military equipment and various weaponry every year since 2008.
The ministry statement this week cited the “current operational situation” as a reason for excluding a military equipment convoy, as well as cadets, from the parade. The statement didn't elaborate.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in a conference call with reporters on Wednesday blamed Ukraine and its “terrorist activity, in an apparent reference to Kyiv's strikes deep inside Russia. “All measures are being taken to minimize the danger,” he said.
The parade will feature “servicemen from higher military educational institutions of all kinds and certain service branches of the Russian Armed Forces" and a traditional military aircraft flyover, the ministry said.
World War II remains a rare point of consensus in the nation’s divisive history under Communist rule, and the Kremlin has leveraged that sentiment to encourage national pride and underline Russia’s position as a global power.
The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in what it calls the Great Patriotic War in 1941-45, an enormous sacrifice that left a deep scar in the national psyche.
President Vladimir Putin, who has ruled Russia for over 25 years, has turned Victory Day into a key pillar of his tenure and has tried to use it to justify the war in Ukraine.
Last year's parade was the largest since Russia sent troops into Ukraine, and drew the most global leaders to Moscow in a decade, including high-profile guests like Chinese President Xi Jinping, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico.
It featured over 11,500 troops and more than 180 military vehicles, including tanks, armored infantry vehicles and artillery used on the battlefield in Ukraine, as well as huge Yars nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles launchers and drones carried on military trucks. Fighter jets flew over Red Square, too.
Putin had declared a unilateral 72-hour ceasefire starting May 7, 2025, and the authorities blocked cellphone internet in Moscow for several days in an effort to avert Ukrainian drone attacks.
In 2023, the parade was scaled down, with fewer troops and military equipment on display and no flyover.
Troops attend a rehearsal for the Victory Day military parade at the Dvortsovaya (Palace) Square in St. Petersburg, Russia, Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)
Troops attend a rehearsal for the Victory Day military parade at the Dvortsovaya (Palace) Square in St. Petersburg, Russia, Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)
Navy cadets march during a rehearsal for the Victory Day military parade at the Dvortsovaya (Palace) Square in St. Petersburg, Russia, Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)
Troops march during a rehearsal for the Victory Day military parade at the Dvortsovaya (Palace) Square in St. Petersburg, Russia, Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)
Troops attend a rehearsal for the Victory Day military parade at the Dvortsovaya (Palace) Square in St. Petersburg, Russia, Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)
