Almost one-third of troops at Minsk parade to be from Russia

Russian military hardware that will take part in the parade will arrive in Belarus in the last decade of April.

The parade squad of the 606th guards air defence regiment from Elektrostal (Moscow region), which will participate in the parade on the 70th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War, arrived in Minsk, charter97.org learnt from the Ministry of Defence of Belarus.

“Servicemen of the Russian Federation will take part in the military parade of the Minsk garrison to mark the Day of Victory of the Soviet army and the Soviet people over Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War. Guests from the fraternal country will have drills as part of the parade mechanised column,” the ministry says.

Russian military hardware that will take part in the parade is expected to arrive in Belarus in the last decade of April. It will form seven out of 24 parade squads, including a flight echelon, the Ministry of Defence's newspaper Vo Slavu Rodiny reports.

“These are the most state-of-the-art samples of military hardware that is used in the army of the Russian Federation and in the regional group of troops. It is planned to have joint drills that will allow Belarusian and Russian commanders to establish a closer cooperation. It will undoubtedly increase the defence capacity of the Republic of Belarus,” the newspaper wrote.

Vintage military hardware of the Great Patriotic War will be used in the parade for the first time. They include parts of air defence systems: a searchlight and two anti-aircraft guns mounted on ZIS vehicles. 250 items of military hardware will be presented at the parade. The rehearsal will take place in Minsk on May 4 and 6 in Masherau Avenue.

Aircraft of the 116th guards assault air base will fly in pyramid, echelon and diamond formations. China sent two exclusive cabriolets for the Victory Day parade in Belarus. The cars delivered to Belarus are the most expensive cars in the history of Chinese car manufacturing. The basic model of this limousine is an object of luxury in China. It was initially planned that the only car of this kind will be used by the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party. According to the Chinese side, there are no analogues of this car in the world.