BB.lv: Victory Parade in Moscow: under the snow without tanks

The weather did not please the participants of the event either – for the first time in the last few years, it snowed in Moscow on May 9. The last time it was this cold on this day was in 1999. The snowfall stopped only towards the end of the parade.

More than nine thousand people took part in the parade. This is one thousand more than a year ago, but two less than in 2022, when 11 thousand took part in the parade.

For the first time, military personnel who took part in the war with Ukraine took part in this parade.

On Thursday, 61 armored vehicles drove through Red Square. That’s also down from a year ago, when the parade featured 125 different vehicles.

In addition, 15 combat aircraft flew in the sky – this is also the smallest aviation group at parades in recent years. True, sometimes the aviation flight was canceled due to weather, but now this was not done, despite the snowfall at the beginning of the parade.

“Prevent a global collision”

Russian President Vladimir Putin traditionally spoke before the start of the parade. As in the two previous years, he spoke not only regarding victory in the Great Patriotic War, but also regarding Russia’s war once morest Ukraine and the confrontation with the West. However, this time there was less anti-Western rhetoric.

Putin complained to the West regarding his exorbitant ambitions, his desire to justify the current followers of Nazism,” and his attempts to distort “the truth regarding the war.

He further stated that Russia will do everything to prevent a global clash.

“But at the same time, we will not allow anyone to threaten us. Our strategic forces are always in combat readiness,” Putin added.

Almost all of Europe worked for the military power of the Wehrmacht, the Russian president said, but immediately recognized the merits of the second front and the inspiring traditions of alliance.

“Russia is now experiencing a difficult, milestone moment,” Putin continued. Last year, this thought sounded more dramatic: “Today civilization is once more at a decisive, turning point, a real war has once once more been unleashed once morest our Motherland.”

Putin once more called the participants in the “special military operation” heroes – as he calls the war once morest Ukraine. According to Putin, all of Russia bows before them, and veterans of the Great Patriotic War worry regarding them.

Before the minute of silence, Putin briefly mentioned the barbaric terrorist attacks of neo-Nazis, and following it he announced the country’s movement forward, based on “centuries-old traditions,” the goal of which is a secure future for Russia.

“Glory to the valiant Armed Forces. For Russia! For victory. Hooray!” – he finished his speech. After which parade formations began to march across Red Square.

Tens of thousands of people have become victims of Russia’s war once morest Ukraine, which Putin began on February 24, 2022.

Sudden aviation

The aviation part, which was formally canceled in recent years due to bad weather conditions, took place this year, albeit in a reduced form.

It was snowing at the beginning of the parade, but towards the end it stopped, and nine fighters from the Swift and Vityazi aerobatic teams flew across Red Square, as well as six Su-25 attack aircraft, leaving a colored smoky trail in the sky in the form of the Russian flag.

This was quite unexpected – in previous years the aviation part was canceled when the weather was obviously better. After all, the planes had to gather and line up long before they flew over Red Square.

Perhaps the aviation flight was not canceled because large aircraft did not participate in the parade – the air part also turned out to be very modest – and it is easier for fighters piloted by experienced pilots to fly in difficult conditions.

Until now, in post-Soviet times, the smallest parade using military equipment was in 2008. It involved 111 pieces of equipment, 32 airplanes and helicopters.

We are “Armaty”

Just like a year ago, the only tank in the parade was the T-34 from World War II. He led the column of equipment.

Following him were armored personnel carriers BTR-82A, “Tiger”, armored vehicles “VPK-Ural”, ambulance armored vehicles “Linza”, armored vehicles “Typhoon-K”, operational-tactical missile systems “Iskander”, anti-aircraft systems S-400 and intercontinental ballistic missiles Yars missiles. At the very end, three heavy Boomerang infantry fighting vehicles passed by.

Since 2015, in parades on May 9 on Red Square, promising military equipment has traditionally been shown – the T-14 tank and T-15 infantry fighting vehicle of the Armata family, the Kurganets infantry fighting vehicle, the Coalition self-propelled guns, and the Boomerang wheeled infantry fighting vehicle.

For the second year in a row, only the Boomerang is shown on Red Square.

Before the start of the war in Ukraine, “Boomerangs” were, in the propaganda view, a symbol of the resurgent power of the Russian army, although none of them went into mass production.

At the parades, however, they showed new equipment that has already begun to enter the troops and is participating in the war, but usually these are only light armored vehicles, such as the Typhoon and Tiger, which also participated in the current parade.

The Russian leadership does not mention the reasons for the lack of new developments in parades. This may be partly motivated by a desire to avoid awkward questions.

Since the beginning of the war, there have been many comments on social networks and military blogs, the authors of which noted the lack of new developments of the Russian military-industrial complex at the front.

True, there were reports in the Russian press regarding the limited use of T-14 tanks in Ukraine, but if this is true, then we are talking more regarding tests than regarding deliveries to the troops, and in any case these were isolated cases.

The absence of older tanks such as modernized versions of the T-72, T-80 and T-90 from parades might be explained by a variety of reasons, but many commentators believe Russia may be short of armored vehicles at the front.

This is difficult to prove, since Russia does not publish data on the number of armored vehicles and their losses, nor on production and restoration. However, the shortage of new tanks and other weapons and military equipment is indirectly illustrated by the supply of outdated combat vehicles to the front, including the T-62 and BMP-1.