Victory Day parade to take place in Minsk in evening
19:16, 31 March
The parade timed to Victory Day will take place in the evening. Over 3,000 people will take part in the parade, BelTA learned from Belarusian Deputy Defense Minister Sergei Potapenko on 31 March.
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The military parade to mark the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 will take place in Minsk on 9 May. The parade will take place in the evening and will follow the traditional format – aerial units followed by a mechanized column and a column on foot. It will last for up to 60 minutes, Sergei Potapenko said. The parade will be finished with an exhibition drill of the guard of honor company and a performance of the combined army orchestra.
Over 3,000 military personnel and 185 units of equipment are supposed to take place in this year's parade. As many as 42 aerial units will have to fly over the capital city. Military personnel from Russia and China are expected to take part in the parade.
This year's parade will feature only new and modernized units of military hardware. Virtually all the vehicles will be wheeled to minimize the disadvantages the population may experience. Only one parade unit of the mechanized column will be on tracks. Sergei Potapenko did not disclose what new military products will parade in Minsk. Yet he confirmed that the multiple-launch rocket system (MLRS) Fleita will be one of them.
Parade participants train three times per week: the foot column does that on the parade ground of the Minsk military commandant's office while the mechanized column trains in the Lipki airfield. General rehearsals in the city proper are scheduled for 5 May and 7 May.
The foot column will include 22 parade units: 20 Belarusian ones, one from Russia, and another one from China. The mechanized column will include 16 units from Belarus, two from Russia. The column will be led by a T-34 tank. It will be followed by 13 parade units representing the Armed Forces of Belarus, lightly-armored vehicles Lis of the Internal Troops of the Internal Affairs Ministry, a parade unit of the State Military Industrial Committee featuring 27 cutting-edge samples of weaponry and military hardware. The Russian army is expected to be represented by armored personnel carriers BTR-82A and a parade unit of tactical missile systems Iskander.
