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A total of 11,335 servicemen took part in the parade, with Russian Armed Forces troops joined on Red Square by servicemen from 13 other countries, including Britain, the USA, France, Poland, and the CIS countries. Around 3,000 veterans watched from the guest tribunes.
Addressing the participants and guests, Dmitry Medvedev said that the victory in 1945 was not only a military but also a moral victory. All of the Soviet Union’s peoples fought for it, and the allies helped to bring it closer. The unity between countries displayed at today’s parade is testimony to the common desire to defend peace, not allow the results of the war to be called into question, and not let such tragedies ever happen again, the President said.
Marching with the Russian servicemen on Red Square today were representatives of France’s legendary Escadrille Normandie-Nieman, the Welsh Guards Regiment, soldiers of the 18th Infantry Regiment’s 2nd Battalion, which landed in Normandy, a Polish Armed Forces honour guards company, and army battalions from the CIS countries – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Ukraine.
A total of 161 military vehicles rolled through Red Square, from historic T-34 tanks to the latest model armoured vehicles and missile launchers.
A total of 17 Russian Air Force groups with 127 planes and helicopters took part in the parade’s air display.
Victory Day parades took place simultaneously in 72 cities across Russia.
Heads of state from the CIS countries, Europe, and countries that took part in the anti-Nazi coalition came to Moscow to take part in the 65th anniversary celebrations. Following the parade, Dmitry Medvedev, together with the foreign heads of state and government, laid flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by the Kremlin wall.
May 9, 2010, Red Square, Moscow