The parade began with the march of the Honor Guard’s banner group 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 Soviet 150th Idritskaya rifle division in May 1945, TASS reported.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, war veterans, and guests watched the parade from the central reviewing stand on Red Square. Russian Defense Minister General of the Army Sergey Shoigu reviewed the parade, which is commanded by Ground Forces Commander-in-Chief General of the Army Oleg Salyukov.
“Defending the Motherland when its fate is being decided has always been sacred,” the Russian president said in a direct address to his troops.
“Today you are fighting for our people in Donbas, for the security of Russia, our homeland,” he added, as military hardware rumbled through Moscow’s Red Square.
This year, Russia’s Victory Parade on Moscow’s Red Square involved 11,000 troops and 131 items of military and special hardware.
The foot columns comprise 33 parade units that included officers, sergeants, and soldiers of military units and formations of the Western Military District, students and cadets of military educational institutions, Suvorov infantry and Nakhimov naval schools and cadet corps, Young Army Movement members, and representatives of other ministries and agencies and the all-Russia Cossack Society.
A legendary T-34 tank will traditionally lead the mechanized column at the Victory Day Parade.
RHM/PR