Putin congratulates the leaders on Victory Day

Russian soldiers march in Red Square during a rehearsal for the Victory Day military parade which will take place at Moscow’s Red Square on May 9 to celebrate 71 years after the victory in WWII in Moscow, Russia, Saturday, May 7, 2016. A Soviet time award ‘Order of the Red Star’ in the background. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Vladimir Putin, Russian President has congratulated the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Georgia and Ukraine with the 71st anniversary of the Victory Day.

He said that fascism has been defeated with the strong will of people and this will continue to facilitate the development of integrational process on the Eurasian continent “Our common duty is to carefully preserve the memory about those who died in the Great Patriotic War and to care about veterans in every possible way.”

TASS reported that “On May 9. Some 40,000 servicemen and over 800 items of hardware will take part in military parades on May 9. Overall, Victory Parades will be held in 26 cities of the country. The parade on Moscow’s Red Square will involve more than 10,000 servicemen, over 170 items of military hardware, including more than 70 aircraft and helicopters. Overall, more than 10,000 troops are involved in training drills together with over 100 pieces of modern weaponry and military hardware that include Tigr (Tiger) armored vehicles, T-90 main battle tanks, BTR-82A armored personnel carriers, BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles, Msta-S self-propelled howitzers, Buk-M2 anti-aircraft missile systems, Pantsyr-S1 air defense missile/gun complexes, Yars missile systems and others.”