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70th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany

Moscow closes airspace for one hour for Victory Day parade on Red Square

MOSCOW, May 9. /TASS/. Moscow airspace will be closed for almost an hour on Saturday morning local time with all airports in the Russian capital shut down for departures and arrivals due to Victory Day military parade on Red Square, a spokesman for the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency told TASS.

The spokesman said that all civil aviation flights will be prohibited in the airspace of the Russian capital starting from 10:30 a.m. and until 11:20 a.m. Moscow time (7:30-8:20 GMT).

"There will be allowed only a transit corridor for aircraft flying at an altitude between 9,000 and 11,000 meters [29,527-36,089 feet]," the spokesman said.

According to him, the measure was imposed due to intensive aerial program of the military parade on Red Square with over 100 combat aircraft participating in the event commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s Victory over Nazi Germany in WWII.

"They [combat aircraft] are flying in to the place of the demonstration from various airfields and it is impossible to draw the trajectories of their flights without interfering into the flight corridors of the civil aviation," the spokesman said. "That is why it was decided to close the Moscow airspace for 50 minutes."

"All airlines have been notified in advance and had ample time to adjust their scheduled routes over Moscow," he added.

The anniversary parade in Moscow on May 9 will be one of the most massive events in the history of celebrations.

The parade will showcase 16,000 military servicemen marching, 194 units of military hardware and 143 combat aircraft.

A historic reconstruction is also planned for the parade. Some people will be dressed in uniforms of the times of the Great Patriotic War - infantrymen, sailors, pilots, sappers, cavalrymen and Cossacks.

Military units from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, India, Mongolia, Serbia, China will participate in the parade.

Around 2,300 people have been invited to the Red Square for celebrations, including veterans from Russia and abroad.

According to official data, about 27 million Soviet citizens, including both civilians and servicemen, died in the Great Patriotic War against Nazi Germany in 1941-1945.

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70th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany

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