Victory Parade on Red Square

Alongside with the President of Russia on the stand were Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan Pashinyan NikolPrime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko Lukashenko AlexanderPresident of Belarus, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev Tokayev Kassym-JomartPresident of the Republic of Kazakhstan, President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov Japarov SadyrPresident of the Kyrgyz Republic, President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon Rahmon EmomaliPresident of Tajikistan, President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov Berdimuhamedov SerdarPresident of Turkmenistanand President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev Mirziyoyev ShavkatPresident of Uzbekistan. Before the parade, Vladimir Putin welcomed the heads of foreign states who had arrived in Moscow for the celebrations, in the Heraldic Hall of the Kremlin.

The parade began with the national flag of Russia and the Banner of Victory carried into Red Square. The parade was led by Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Ground Forces Army General Oleg Salyukov and reviewed by Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu Shoigu SergeiDefence Minister.

The marching column on Red Square included 30 ceremonial regiments of over 8,000 service personnel, among them 530 troops taking part in the special military operation.

The motorised column was headed by the legendary "Victory tank" T-34-85. Tigr-M and BTR-82A armoured personnel carriers, Bumerang infantry fighting vehicles, Iskander-M operational tactical missile systems, S-400 Triumf air defence launchers and Yars mobile ground-based missile systems drove through Red Square. The newest Spartak and 3-STS Akhmat armoured vehicles were presented at the parade for the first time.

The music accompaniment was provided by the combined military orchestra.

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Speech by the President of Russia at the military parade

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Citizens of Russia,

Dear veterans,

Comrade soldiers and sailors, sergeants and warrant officers, midshipmen and sergeant majors,

Comrade officers, generals and admirals,

Soldiers and commanders participating in the special military operation,

Happy Victory Day!

Happy holiday that commemorates the honour of our fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers who glorified and immortalised their names by defending our Fatherland. They saved the humankind from Nazism through immeasurable courage and immense sacrifice.

Today, our civilisation is at a crucial turning point. A real war is being waged against our country again but we have countered international terrorism and will defend the people of Donbass and safeguard our security.

For us, for Russia, there are no unfriendly or hostile nations either in the west or in the east. Just like the vast majority of people on the planet, we want to see a peaceful, free and stable future.

We believe that any ideology of superiority is abhorrent, criminal and deadly by its nature. However, the Western globalist elites keep speaking about their exceptionalism, pit nations against each other and split societies, provoke bloody conflicts and coups, sow hatred, Russophobia, aggressive nationalism, destroy family and traditional values which make us human. They do all that so as to keep dictating and imposing their will, their rights and rules on peoples, which in reality is a system of plundering, violence and suppression.

They seem to have forgotten what the Nazis' insane claims of global dominance led to. They forgot who destroyed that monstrous, total evil, who stood up for their native land and did not spare their lives to liberate the peoples of Europe.

We see how in certain countries they ruthlessly and cold-bloodedly destroy memorials to Soviet soldiers, demolish monuments to great commanders, create a real cult of the Nazis and their proxies, erase and demonise the memory of true heroes. Such profanation of the feat and sacrifices of the victorious generation is also a crime, an outright revanchism on the part of those who were cynically and blatantly preparing a new march on Russia and who brought together neo-Nazi scum from around the world for this.

Their goal - and there is nothing new about it - is to break apart and destroy our country, to make null and void the outcomes of World War II, to completely break down the system of global security and international law, to choke off any sovereign centres of development.

Boundless ambition, arrogance and impunity inevitably lead to tragedies. This is the reason for the catastrophe the Ukrainian people are going through. They have become hostage to the coup d'état and the resulting criminal regime of its Western masters, collateral damage in the implementation of their cruel and self-serving plans.

The memory of defenders of the Fatherland is sacred for us in Russia, and we cherish it in our hearts. We give credit to members of the Resistance who bravely fought Nazism as well as the troops of the allied armies of the United States, Great Britain and other countries. We remember and honour the feat of Chinese soldiers in the fight against Japanese militarism.

I strongly believe that the experience of solidarity and partnership during the years of fighting a common threat is our invaluable heritage and a secure foothold now when the unstoppable movement is gaining momentum towards a more just multipolar world, a world based on the principles of trust and indivisible security, of equal opportunities for a genuine and free development of all nations and peoples.

It is crucial that leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States have gathered here in Moscow today. I see it as appreciation of the feat of our ancestors: they fought and won together since all the peoples of the USSR contributed to our common Victory.

We will always remember that. We bow our heads in cherished memory of those who lost their lives during the war, the memory of sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, grandfathers, husbands, wives, sisters and friends.

I declare a minute of silence.

(A minute of silence.)

To be continued.

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