MOSCOW, May 9. /TASS/. A military parade to commemorate the 78th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s Victory over Nazi Germany in the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War took place on Moscow’s Red Square on Tuesday.

The parade began with the march of the Honor Guard’s banner group carrying the Russian national flag and the legendary Victory Banner across Red Square. The Victory Banner was hoisted over the Reichstag by soldiers of the Soviet 150th Idritsa rifle division in May 1945.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, war veterans and guests watched the parade from the central reviewing stand on Red Square. Presidents of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan Alexander Lukashenko, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Sadyr Japarov, Emomali Rahmon, Serdar Berdimuhamedow and Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attended the Victory Day Parade on Moscow’s Red Square.

Defense Minister Army General Sergey Shoigu reviewed the military parade commanded by Ground Forces Commander-in-Chief Army General Oleg Salyukov.

This year, Russia’s Victory Day Parade on Moscow’s Red Square involved over 8,000 troops, including 530 fighters of the special military operation in Ukraine, and more than 100 items of military hardware.

This year, the infantry column comprised 30 parade units. A legendary T-34 tank traditionally led the mechanized column at the Victory Day Parade. The military parade’s mechanized column also involved Tigr-M armored vehicles, BTR-82A armored personnel carriers, Bumerang infantry fighting vehicles, Iskander-M tactical missile systems, S-400 Triumf anti-aircraft missile systems and Yars road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launchers. Spartak and 3-STS-Akhmat armored vehicles took part in the military parade for the first time.

The air parade over Moscow’s Red Square did not take place this year.

After the final column of military hardware rolled through Moscow’s Red Square, the consolidated military band returned to the square’s center and completed the military parade by performing the song Pobeda (Victory).

In 2020, the May 9 military parade to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s Victory over Nazi Germany in the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War was rescheduled for June 24 due to the novel coronavirus pandemic and the parade’s airborne part involved 75 aircraft and helicopters. In 2021, the number of aircraft flying over Moscow’s Red Square during the May 9 Victory Day Parade was increased to 76. In 2022, the air parade over Moscow’s Red Square was cancelled due to bad weather.