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Moscow’s Red Square ready for V-Day parade

The forming-up of ceremonial squads ended half an hour before the start of the parade, which was announced by fanfares
Screenshot Russia 24
Screenshot Russia 24

MOSCOW, May 9 (Itar-Tass) – A traditional V-Day parade has begun on Red Square in Moscow.

The forming-up of ceremonial squads ended half an hour before the start of the parade, which was announced by fanfares.

Prepared for a march-past along the Square are 14,000 servicemen of the Armed Forces and combat units reporting to law enforcement agencies – teachers and cadets of military academies, students of defense universities and institutes, airborne soldiers, marines, and servicemen of ground troops and the Interior Ministry armed formations.

Servicemen who took part in combat operations in Afghanistan in the 1980’s, in the antiterrorist operations in Chechnya and in the 2008 operating to coerce Georgia to peace after the attack on the Republic of South Ossetia also take part in the parade.

The servicemen will carry the State Flag of the Russian Federation, the Victory Banner, the Banner of the Armed Forces, the standards of the World War II Soviet fronts.

About a hundred combat vehicles rolled out of special parking areas on Khodynskaye Field in the northwest of the city. Their caterpillars are covered with special protective panels so as to prevent of minimize damage to street pavements.

Ready for a departure towards Red Square are Mi-8 helicopters that will take off from the Tushino airfield on the outskirts of Moscow.