Al Jazeera reports: But this year, for the first time in nearly 20 years, the parade will take place without tanks, missiles and other heavy weapons, aside from a traditional flyover of combat jets.Officials said the sudden change of format was due to the “current operational situation” and pointed to the threat of Ukrainian attacks. Advertisement Peskov shrugged off Zelenskyy’s decree as a “silly joke.” “We don’t need anyone’s permission to be proud of our Victory Day,” Peskov told reporters.Russian authorities warned that if Ukraine attempts to disrupt Saturday’s festivities, Russia will carry out a “massive missile strike on the center of Kyiv”.Victory Day is also observed in other former Soviet states such as Belarus and Kazakhstan.
The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in 1941-45 in what it calls the Great Patriotic War, an enormous sacrifice that left a deep scar in the national psyche and remains a rare point of consensus in the nation’s divisive history under communist rule.
Originally reported by Al Jazeera. This story has been edited and re-presented by BRIC Team.
