Russia held a Victory Day parade in Moscow's Red Square

MOSCOW, 9 May. A military parade was held on Moscow's Red Square to mark the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. The parade began with a march by a battalion group of the Preobrazhensky Regiment honor guard unit carrying the Russian national flag and the legendary Victory Banner across Red Square. The Victory Banner was hoisted over the Reichstag by soldiers of the 150th Reichstag. Idris Rifle Division in May 1945. Russian President Vladimir Putin, war veterans, guests and foreign dignitaries watched the parade from the central parade stand on Red Square. Defence Minister Andrei Belousov reviewed the parade, which was commanded by Army General Oleg Salyukov, Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces.

The Victory Day parade on Red Square in Moscow was attended by representatives of 27 foreign countries, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, President of the Republic of Serbia Milorad Dodik, and President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, Vietnamese Communist Party General Secretary To Lam, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Ethiopian President Taye Atske Selassie, Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embalo and other foreign dignitaries.

Last year, more than 9,000 troops, 61 weapons systems and 15 combat aircraft took part in the Russian Victory Day parade on Red Square in Moscow. This year, troops from 13 countries took part in the military parade on Moscow's Red Square. Among the military contingents from the CIS states were parade units from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Troops from friendly states included parade units from Vietnam, Egypt, China, Laos, Mongolia and Myanmar.

This year, over 11,000 soldiers took part in the military parade on Red Square in Moscow, including 1,500 special operations soldiers and 183 World War II and modern weapons systems soldiers. The foot columns of Russian soldiers at the military parade on Red Square in Moscow consisted of regiments and battalions of the armed services and military comrades, parade units from the Suvorov Infantry and Nakhimov Naval, Cadet and Military Music Schools, members of the Young Army youth movement, military service members, Cossacks, special military operation fighters and a consolidated military band.

Legendary T-34 tanks from World War II, the main symbol of Victory, traditionally led a mechanized column during a military parade on Moscow's Red Square. They were followed by a group of light wheeled vehicles that included Tigr-M and VPK-Ural multi-purpose armoured vehicles and Linza medical vehicles. Then, BMP-2 and BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles with special combat modules and T-72B3M, T-80BVM and T-90M Proryv main battle tanks rolled through Red Square. Modern artillery weapons on display at the Victory Day parade on Red Square in Moscow included Msta-S howitzers, Giatsint-K and Malva artillery guns. This was followed by Tornado-S multiple rocket systems and TOS-2 Tosochka heavy flame throwers.

For the first time, a column of troops of unmanned systems took part in the military parade in Moscow's Red Square. The column consisted of mounted Orlan-10 reconnaissance drones and Orlan-30 surveillance/guidance drones, ZALA, Lancet, Garpija and Geran combat drones.

Russian missile troops and strategic missile forces were represented at the military parade on Red Square in Moscow by Iskander-M tactical missile systems, S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile launchers and Yars road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) systems. The final column of military equipment consisted of Bumerang wheeled armoured personnel carriers. The military parade ended with a flyover of combat aircraft over Moscow's Red Square. The acrobatic groups Russkiye Vityaz (Russian Knights) on Su-30SM fighters and Strizhi (Swifts) on MiG-29 fighters performed Kubinka Diamond acrobatics over the centre of Moscow. They were followed by six Su-25 attack aircraft, which released smoke in the colours of the Russian national flag.

TASS/gnews.cz-jav