Russia: low clouds prevent Victory Day air parade

Bad weather conditions in Moscow led to the cancellation of the traditional Victory Day air parade, celebrated on May 09th. Low clouds over the Russian capital prevented military aircraft from flying over Red Square.

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Yevgeny Tishkovets, from the Russian meteorological service Phobos, had already informed the RIA Novosti agency that conditions in Moscow at the time of Monday's parade "would be difficult."

Phobos reported that a ceiling cloud layer of 300 meters was expected, leading to the cancellation of military aviation participation in the parade. Dmitry Peskov, press secretary for President Vladimir Putin, confirmed the cancellation of the overflight.

Even without the imposing presence of planes and helicopters, the parade on the ground continued normally and with speeches by Putin where he criticized the United States and defended the invasion of Ukraine.

The event had the participation of veterans of the 2nd World War who watched the modern vehicles of the Russian army, some models that were already destroyed in the war in Ukraine. Among them is the T-90M, the second most modern tank in the Russian arsenal, behind only the T-14 Armata, which did not enter large-scale production.

According to the Aerotime Hub, this is not the first time that the air parade has been canceled due to weather conditions. The same thing happened in 2017 and at that time, Peskov explained that regulations prohibit flights if the cloud base is less than 500 meters.

During the rehearsals in the days leading up to the parade, the jets of the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) were observed flying in Z formation. The letter Z was painted on a number of vehicles taking part in the invasion of the neighboring country as a form of identification, but has now become a symbol of what Russia calls a "special military operation".

https://twitter.com/StarboyHK/status/1522228785852022784

Three Sukhoi Su-57 stealth fighters were also ed during the trials, possibly indicating that three series production aircraft of this type are currently in service with VKS.

The crews of the Su-57 in preparation for participation in the rehearsal of the Victory Parade.
📹uac_ru pic.twitter.com/tQKWUYQNo6

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- Massimo Frantarelli (@MrFrantarelli) May 7, 2022

Russia: Low clouds prevent Victory Day air parade

by Gabriel Centeno