Victory Parade in Moscow

About 14,000 troops, over 200 latest and WWII military hardware and 75 aircraft took part in the military parade on Moscow’s Red Square devoted to the 75th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War.

Troops attending parade in Moscow. Photo: Reuters

"Attention, this is Moscow speaking and showing. Listen to and watch Red Square. This is the Victory Parade in honor of the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War!" the speaker announced opening the event. These words traditionally begin military parades in Russia in honor of the victory over Nazi Germany.

The banner-carrying group of the guard of honor battalion of the Preobrazhensky Regiment brought the Russian flag and the legendary Victory Banner, which had been hoisted over the Reichstag by the combatants of the 150th Idritsa division in 1945, to Moscow’s Red Square.

The parade was being reviewed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, war veterans and guests.

President’s address

During his address from the central tribune on Moscow’s Red Square, President Putin said the future of the world could not be imagined, hadn't the Red Army defended it.

"It is impossible even to imagine what would have become of the world, if the Red Army had not come to its defense," the head of state said.

"Its soldiers [the soldiers of the Red Army] needed neither the war nor other countries, nor glory, nor honors. They strove to crush the enemy, achieve the victory and return home. And they paid an irretrievable price for the freedom of Europe," Putin stressed.

Many hundreds of thousands of Soviet soldiers fell in a foreign land, the Russian leader said.

"Our duty is to remember this and remember that the Soviet people bore the brunt of the struggle against Nazism," Putin said.

"It was our people that defeated the terrible, total evil," the Russian leader stressed, adding that Russia would never forget the contribution by the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition to achieving the Victory and the importance of the second front opened in June 1944.

"We know and in the face of the challenges our planet is confronted with we feel especially acutely what the greatest value is: an individual, his dreams, joys and hopes; a peaceful, calm and creative life," Putin said.

This year, the Victory Parade on Moscow’s Red Square was attended by Abkhazian President Aslan Bzhania, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Serb member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Milorad Dodik, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov, Moldovan President Igor Dodon, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and South Ossetian President Anatoly Bibilov.

As Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on June 23, the Kremlin treats with understanding the situation that some foreign leaders were unable to come to the Victory Parade in Moscow due to the restrictions introduced over the coronavirus pandemic.