Moscow All Set for Victory Day Parade, Immortal Regiment March

Residents and guests of the Russian capital are preparing to celebrate the Soviet and Allied victory over Nazi Germany and its allies in the Second World War. Victory Day is one of the most important holidays in Russia and many other post-Soviet states.

The military parade marking the 73rd anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War will start at exactly 10:00 am. 12,500 servicemen and women will take part, along with 120 pieces of military equipment, and 73 airplanes and helicopters.

Traffic along many of the main thoroughfares in the city center will be restricted beginning at 6 am, and restrictions will remain in place not only for the parade, but the Immortal Regiment march set to follow it. Some 750,000 people took part last year's Immortal Regiment commemorations, with similar numbers expected this year. The Immortal Regiment march will kick off at 3 pm, with participants walking along Tverskoy Boulevard, across Red Square, and further south.

In accordance with established tradition, the parade will see the premiere of some of Russia's newest military equipment, including Su-57 stealth fighter jets, MiG-31s carrying the Kinzhal missile system, Terminator BMPTs, and air and ground-based unmanned reconnaissance and combat vehicles and drones, as well as the Tor-M2 surface-to-air missile system.

Russians and people from other ex-Soviet republics refer to the 1941-1945 war against Nazi Germany and its allies as the Great Patriotic War. The colossal struggle was the largest and deadliest military conflict in human history, and cost the Soviet Union some 27 million military and civilian casualties. Nazi Germany and its Axis allies Romania, Hungary, Italy, and Finland lost some 5.5 million troops, and suffered well over 100,000 civilian deaths on the Eastern Front.