Russian Victory Day Parade on Moscow’s Red Square comes to an end

The parade to mark the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II on Friday has ended on Moscow’s Red Square.

Over 10,000 people and 130 military vehicles took part in the celebrations. Video footage posted by Smotri Media showed Russia’s Defence Minister Andrey Belousov, dressed in civilian clothes, saluting the parade.

Vladimir Putin addressed the crowd, saying “the whole country supports those fighting in the ‘special military operation’”, state-owned news agency TASS reported. He said Russia would “remain an unshakable bulwark against the defenders of Nazism, Russophobia and anti-Semitism”.

Over 1,500 of the servicemen at the parade have fought in the war in Ukraine, according to Smotri Media. State-owned news agency RIA Novosti, meanwhile, said that military representatives from North Korea had front-row seats in the stands on Red Square.

Telegram news channel Ostorozhno Novosti said that there was no mobile connection at the parade venue. The authorities had announced that they would switch off mobile internet as a security measure.

Over 20 foreign leaders were in attendance, including Slovak Prime Minister Fico, the sole EU leader to attend, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, the presidents of Mongolia, Cuba, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko.

Ukraine marked Victory Day on Thursday, having changed the date of its celebrations to fall in line with much of the western world. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky marked the day with a video filmed in central Kyiv and a rebuke of Putin ahead of what he called Moscow’s “parade of cynicism”.