The authorities of Belgorod, Russia, canceled the Victory Day parade, which is celebrated in the country on May 9. The Russians fear that the accumulation of a large number of soldiers and military equipment in one place may allegedly provoke the Ukrainians to attack.
Victory Day is one of the most important public holidays of the Russian Federation . It commemorates the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany during World War II. Every year on May 9, Russians celebrate with a flourish. Vladimir Putin himself also makes a special contribution to this event, giving a solemn speech every year.
Despite the solemnity of this holiday in Russia, the celebrations in Belgorod, located about 40 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, are to be much more modest than usual this year.
– I can say that there will be no parade, so as not to provoke the enemy with a large number of vehicles and troops in the center of Belgorod , said the governor of the region, Vyacheslav Gladkov.
According to him, other important points of the Victory Day celebrations are still under question. It has not yet been decided whether there will be a salvo of honor and the “procession of the Immortal Regiment” – a march organized on May 9 to commemorate the victims of the so-called. great patriotic war.
– We will consider this issue at the next meeting of the operational staff. The most important thing is safety. No one is going to put people in danger,” the governor said.
Meanwhile, the capital’s celebrations on the occasion of May 9 are to take place as usual. However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced that this year’s celebrations would be accompanied by “strengthened security measures”.
Numbering about 400 thousand. Belgorod residents, due to the short distance from the main directions of attack on Kharkiv and Kiev, have been an important logistics center for Putin’s troops from the very beginning of the Russian invasion.
Rockets regularly fall in Belgorod Oblast . The failures of Russian missiles fired from Belgorod towards Ukraine may be responsible for most of this incidents.