Moscow (EFE).- The Victory Day military parade started on Tuesday in Red Square with the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin and several leaders of post-Soviet republics, surrounded by strict security measures for fear of acts of sabotage ukrainians.
The act is chaired by Putin, who will address the troops participating in the parade, as is tradition, including units that have been fighting in Ukraine since February 2022.
In the absence of Western leaders and other renowned heads of state, in the guest rostrum are the leaders of Belarus, Russia’s main ally in the current war, Armenia and the Central Asian countries Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
The Kremlin admitted that the authorities have decided to cancel several public events related to this 78th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany, such as the march known as the Immortal Regiment, fearing what it called “terrorist acts” by part of Kiev.
“All necessary measures are taken to guarantee security, even more so when we are talking about the presence of foreign guests and the head of state,” said Dmitri Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman.
In an unprecedented move, Red Square was closed for two weeks, even before last week’s drone attack on the Kremlin, which Moscow blamed on kyiv.
In addition, for the same reason, more than twenty cities in the European part of Russia, including the annexed Crimean peninsula, canceled the parade, which was held in the main cities of the Urals and Siberia.
Putin congratulates the Ukrainian people
In the latest act of sabotage in the Russian rear, a well-known writer who has actively supported the pro-Russian uprising in Donbas since 2014, Zakhar Prilepin, was seriously injured after suffering a car bomb attack, in which his assistant died.
Despite the hostilities, Putin congratulated the Ukrainian people on Victory Day, but not its president, Volodimir Zelensky.
In total, according to the Ministry of Defense, more than 10,000 soldiers and 125 types of military equipment, including T-90, T-72 and T-14 tanks, as well as artillery pieces, batteries anti-aircraft and cruise missiles.
The military parade is celebrated without victories on the Ukrainian battlefield, where Wagner’s mercenaries have not been able to fulfill their promise to take the Bakhmut stronghold in Donbas.
In addition, the Russian authorities have acknowledged at least 6,000 casualties in their ranks in the fighting in the neighboring country, although independent sources speak of a minimum of 20,000 deaths so far in the “special military operation”.
In the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet episode of the world war, some 26 million citizens of the USSR died, 8 million of them soldiers, according to official figures.