A military parade marking the 75th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War was held on Red Square in Moscow.
"Attention, Moscow speaks and shows , listen and watch Red Square. In commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, the Victory Parade". These words traditionally start the parades in honor of the Victory over fascism.
The banner group of the Preobrazhensky Independent Commandant's Regiment Colour Guard put the Russian flag and the legendary Victory Banner - the red flag, erected over the Reichstag by the soldiers of the 150th Idritsky Division in 1945. The symbols of Russia and the Victory were carried in front of the stands and the ceremonial crews.
On the central tribune were Russian President Vladimir Putin, veterans and guests of the event. This year, in honor of the Victory Anniversary, President of Abkhazia Aslan Bzhania, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, Serbian member of the Presidium of Bosnia and Herzegovina Milorad Dodik, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Zheenbekov, Moldovan President Igor Dodon, Serbian President Alexander Vucic, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and South Ossetian President Anatoly Bibilov came to Moscow.
The parade was attended by the Russian Defense Minister, Army General Sergey Shoigu, and Army General Oleg Saliukov, commander of the Ground Forces. Shoigu and Salyukov toured the parade line with the latest Russian Aurus convertibles. By tradition, the Minister followed the parade and greeted the soldiers. Then he headed to the central tribune with a report on the readiness of troops for the parade to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief and the President of Russia.
This year, about 14 thousand servicemen took part in the Victory Parade.
Passing the parade on foot
Banner groups with the standards of the Great Patriotic War fronts passed through the Red Square.
After Putin's speech and the Russian national anthem, parade commander Oleg Saliukov, the Army Chief of Staff, commanded: "Parade! Attention! For the solemn march, batally, at one linear distance! The first battalion - straight, the rest - to the right! On your shoulder! Eyes right! March!"
By tradition, Corps of Drums of the Moscow Military Music College of the Ministry of Defense named after Lieutenant General Valery Khalilov came to the square. The musicians set the pace for the ceremonial crews - 120 steps per minute. The drummers were followed by banner groups with the flag of Russia, the Banner of Victory and the banner of the Armed Forces of Russia.
The historical part of the parade was opened by the banner groups, they carried the banners of 10 fronts in front of the stands. Then servicemen dressed in historical military uniform of infantrymen, pilots, sailors, engineers, scouts, border guards, the calculations of the people's militia, Cossacks and logistics came on the paving stone. The military had small arms of the Great Patriotic War times - Simonov's self-propelled carbines, Mosin's rifles, Shpagin's and Sudayev's submachine guns.
The parade was also attended by students of Suvorov, Nakhimov and Cadet schools, the group of participants in the youth patriotic movement "Unarmy", soldiers of all types of troops, cadets of higher military schools, as well as crews of the FSB, Emergencies Ministry, Rosgvardia and the Kremlin cadets. For the first time, Nakhimov Naval School from St. Petersburg, servicemen of the Mikhailovsky Artillery Academy,104th Air Assault Regiment of the 76th Guards Air Assault Division and the Battalion of the Don Cossacks passed through Red Square.
13 battalions of the armies of the world
In front of the stands were carried out 13 battalions of the armies of the world - soldiers of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Moldova, Mongolia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Two "Pobeda" cabriolets, with the flags of Turkmenistan and the battle flag of the 748th rifle regiment of the 206th division of the 2nd Ukrainian front, which included the grandfather of the head of the republic Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov Berdimuhamed Annaev, led the parade staff of this country.
Colonel General Alexander Fomin, Deputy Minister of Defense, handed over the historic battle banner to the President of Turkmenistan on May 9 this year during his visit to Ashgabat.
Military vehicles' passage
The legendary T-34 tanks and SU-100 tank destroyers, as well as 200 pieces of modern equipment passed through the Red Square as part of a Mobile Column.
24 groups of military equipment - 200 modern models and 18 historical ones - passed through the front line. The passage of the mobile column was opened by 11 T-34-85 tanks, followed by seven self-propelled SU-100 units.
"Tiger-M" infantry mobility vehicle and "Typhoon-K" with various armaments, BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicle, BMPT Terminator armored support combat vehicle, tanks T-72B3, T-14 "Armata", armored personnel carriers BTR-82A, as well as BMD-4M air-droppable IFV and BTR-MDM "Rakushka" APC Rocket troops and artillery were represented by the deeply upgraded 2S19 Msta-S tracked self-propelled howitzer, the newest SAO Coalition-SV, 9K720 Iskander-M mobile tactical ballistic missile system, TOS-1A Solcepec heavy flamethrower systems. In addition, three RS-24 Yars ICBM on 15U175M wheeled transporter-erector launchers took part in the parade.
The parade was also equipped with air defence systems, such as the Pantsir-S1 mobile SAM system on wheeled chassis and the Pantsir-SA Arctic missile system, S-400 Triumf SAM launch system on 5P85SM2-01 transporter-erector launcher and the Tor-M2U SAM complex on tracked chassis.
Novelties of the parade
Along with the already known combat vehicles, for the first time about 20 samples of new military equipment passed through the Red Square. Some of them had previously not been publicly displayed at all.
Thus, at the parade were held the premieres of heavy TOS-2 Tosochka flamethrower systems, combat vehicles of the ISDM system of remote mining, BMP Kurganets-25 IFV with a 57 mm combat module, upgraded air defense missile and gun systems "Pantsir-S1M " with small-size missiles to combat drones.
For the first time the parade was attended by deeply upgraded tanks T-90M and T-80BVM, infantry fighting vehicles BMP-2 with the combat compartment "Berezhok", multiple rocket launchers "Tornado-S", coastal missile systems "Bal", Typhoon-K 4x4 and Typhoon-VDV protected vehicles with remote-controlled combat modules, Armata BMP with Kinzhal combat module, Derivacia-PVO anti-aircraft artillery systems, Buk-M3 anti-aircraft missile systems as well as S-350 Vityaz and S-300V4 anti-aircraft missile systems.
Armoured military police vehicles Tiger-M and Typhoon-K, which became "workhorses" for Russian patrols in Syria, were presented in separate groups. In addition, "Patrul" and "Ural" wheeled armoured vehicles, as well as "Tigr" special armoured vehicles, were represented by Rosgvardia vehicles.
The passage of mechanized columns was completed by VPK-7829 Bumerang wheeled APC with banners of the Russian Armed Forces.
Aviation part of the parade
The parade ended with the flight of 75 airplanes and helicopters of the Russian Air Force. The aviation that took off from eight Russian airfields flew over Red Square in 16 groups.
Helicopters of the army aviation opened the air part. An Mi-26 amphibious transport helicopter accompanied by four Mi-8 helicopters, three groups of five Mi-35, Ka-52 and Mi-28 helicopters flew over Red Square in "wedge" combat order.
They were followed by aircraft of military transport, special and long-distance aviation. They are represented by A-50, IL-76, Tu-95MS, Tu-22M3, Tu-160, IL-78. They were followed by two groups of MiG-29 and Su-24 operational-tactical aircraft. Two groups of one link each of the latest MiG-31K and Su-57 fighters were in formation.
In the final part, 10 tactical aircraft, the Russian Knights and the Swifts aerobatics groups flew over Red Square. The air unit was completed by a group of six Su-25 attack aircraft, which painted a Russian tricolor of red, blue and white smoke in the sky above Red Square.
At the end of the military parade on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of Victory, Putin honored the memory of those who died in the war, laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The ceremony of laying flowers at the Eternal Flame was accompanied by invited foreign leaders.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS