2018 Moscow Victory Day Parade


The 2018 Moscow Victory Day Parade was a military parade that took place in Red Square in Moscow on 9 May 2018 to commemorate the 73rd anniversary of the capitulation of Nazi Germany in 1945. The annual parade marks the Allied victory in World War II on the Eastern Front, on the same day as the signing of the German act of capitulation to the Allies in Berlin, at midnight of 9 May 1945. President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin delivered his fifteenth holiday address to the nation after the parade inspection presided over by Minister of Defense General of the Army Sergey Shoygu.

Significance and events

This year's parade also marked the centennial year since the 1918 foundation of the Red Army. This year for the first time, in the Victory Day parade in Moscow, it was planned that armored vehicles from the Red Army during the Russian Civil War would be to take part in the parade mobile column, the planned appearance was called off, and the 154th Preobrazhensky Independent Commandant's Regiment's 1st Honor Guard Company took part in the exhibition drill segment of the parade together with a drumline from the Moscow Military Music College, the first time it had been done since the parade of 2007 and a recent tradition which began in the 2001 parade.
Originally, for the first time since 2002, cadets from the Civil Defense Academy of the Ministry of Emergency Situations were not to take part in the Victory Day parade in Moscow, while EMERCOM detachments continued to march past in other major parades nationwide, however, the decision was rescinded. New military vehicles in the parade include the BMPT Terminator A pair of Russia's 5th-generation Su-57 fighter jets flew for the first time over Red Square, together with two MiG-31s armed with Kinzhal air-to-surface missiles.
For the third consecutive year, the parade included a composite ceremonial female battalion from the Military University of the Ministry of Defense, the Military Academy of Material and Technical Support, and the Military Space Academy.

Preparatory activities

Beginning in December 2017, preparations for the parade were well attended at the unit level. Individual unit practices were held in the various military installations for all the participating units in the national and local parades. Unit practices within Moscow Oblast itself started in early March in the Alabino field and other locations before the full-blown parade practice run-throughs for all the participating units will commence later in the month.
All parade practice runs began on 24 March 2018 in the Alabino training range with the first practice run through for the ground column, kicking off the 2-month long national preparations for the 73rd Victory Day, and will last even until the middle of April when the runs on Red Square for the national parade itself will start, ending with a final general combined practice run of the parade in early May in the morning. From the 1st week up to the 3rd week of April, the Alabino military training center serves as the parade training ground for the estimated 14,000 military personnel in attendance for the Moscow parade, plus more than 135 vehicles and 78 aircraft. The air flypast column began their training flights on 9 April 2018.

Timeline for preparatory activities in Moscow

  • 24 March towards 6 April – beginning of parade practice runs in Alabino, Moscow Oblast
  • 2nd up to the 3rd week of April – General practice run-through in the Alabino training field, including a flypast
  • 4th week of April until 2 days before Victory Day - practice runs in Red Square right up to the general practice run
  • * 26–30 April, 2–6 May – evening parade practice run-throughs
  • * 4–5 May – Air flypast practice runs
  • * 6 May – the general practice run at 10 am MST

Foreign dignitaries in attendance

Amongst those in attendance were:

Full order of the 2018 parade

Bold indicates first appearance, italic indicates multiple appearances, Bold and italic indicate returning appearance, all indicated unless otherwise noted.General of the Army Sergey Shoigu, Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation

''Military Bands''

Ground Column

154th Preobrazhensky Independent Commandant's Regiment Colour GuardHonour Guard Company of the 1st Honor Guard Battalion, 154th PICRSuvorov Military SchoolNakhimov Naval SchoolMoscow National Guard Presidential Cadets School Moscow Young Army Patriotic Cadets Unit Moscow National Pensions School Cadet CorpsCombined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian FederationMilitary University of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian FederationMilitary Academy of the Armed Forces Air Defense Branch "Marshal Alexander Vasilevsky" Military Logistics Academy "General of the Army A. V. Khrulev" Zhukovsky – Gagarin Air Force AcademyMilitary Space Academy "Alexander Mozhaysky"Baltic Naval Institute "Admiral Feodor Ushakov" Black Sea Higher Naval Military Institute "Admiral Pavel Nakhimov" 336th Independent Guards Biaystok Marine Brigade of the Baltic Fleet61st Kirkinesskaya Red Banner Marine Brigade of the Northern FleetPeter the Great Military Academy of the Strategic Missile Forces Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School "Gen. of the Army Vasily Margelov"98th Guards Airborne DivisionMoscow Military Police Battalion' Engineering Forces, Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defence and Control Military Academy "Marshal of the Soviet Union Semyon Timoshenko"29th and 38th Independent Railway Brigades of the Russian Railway TroopsCivil Defense Academy of the Ministry of Emergency SituationsSeparate Operational Purpose Division of the National Guard Forces Command, Federal National Guard Troops Service of the Russian Federation "Felix Dzerzhinsky"Moscow Border Guards Institute of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation2nd Guards Tamanskaya Motor Rifle Division "Mikhail Kalinin"4th Guards Kantemirovskaya Tank Division "Yuri Andropov"27th Independent Guards Sevastopol Motor Rifle Brigade "60th Diamond Jubilee Anniversary of the formation of the USSR"

Mobile Column

T-34/85 medium tankAM1 all-terrain vehicle with 6P41 Pecheneg general purpose machine gun GAZ-233114 "Tigr-M" infantry mobility vehicle GAZ-233114 "Tigr-M" with Arbalet-DM remote weapon station mounting a Kord heavy machine gun Kornet D/EM mobile ATGM system on the GAZ-233116 "Tigr-M" chassis Kamaz 53949 Typhoon-K light MRAP Ural Typhoon MRAP BMP Kurganets-25 IFV BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicle T-14 main battle tank T-72B3M modernized main battle tank BMPT Terminator armored support combat vehicle BTR-MDM "Rakushka" APC BMD-4M air-droppable IFV 2S35 Koalitsiya-SV tracked self-propelled howitzer 2S19 Msta-S tracked self-propelled howitzer 9K720 Iskander mobile tactical ballistic missile system BM-30 Smerch mobile MRL system Buk-M2 mobile tracked SAM system Tor-M2U SAM complex on tracked chassis TTM-1901-40 snowmobile with 6P41 Pecheneg general purpose machine gunTor-M2DT point-defense SAM system on tracked Vityaz chassis Pantsir-S1 mobile SAM system on wheeled chassis S-400 SAM launch system on 5P85SM2-01 transporter-erector launcher Uran-6 unmanned mine-clearing vehicleUran-9 unmanned ground combat vehicleKatran unmanned tactical surveillance helicopterKorsar unmanned aerial vehicle Patrul-A MRAP Ural-VV MRAP RS-24 Yars ICBM on 15U175M wheeled transporter-erector launcher UAZ-23632-148-64 pickup truck with Kord and Pecheneg machine guns as escort for RS-24 VPK-7829 Bumerang wheeled APC

Air Fly Past Column

1 Mil Mi-264 Mil Mi-8AMTSh4 Mil Mi-28 from the Berkuts4 Kamov Ka-524 Mil Mi-351 Tupolev Tu-1604 Tupolev Tu-22M31 Antonov An-1243 Ilyushin Il-76MD3 Tupolev Tu-95MS 1 Ilyushin Il-78 and 1 Tupolev Tu-1606 Mikoyan MiG-29SMT4 Sukhoi Su-24M6 Mikoyan MiG-314 Sukhoi Su-342 Sukhoi Su-57 4 Sukhoi Su-34, 4 Sukhoi Su-30 and 2 Sukhoi Su-35SSukhoi Su-30SM and Mikoyan MiG-29SMT of the Russian Knights and Strizhi6 Sukhoi Su-25

Other parades

As per tradition, 27 other Russian major cities held their commemorative parades on that day, and joint civil-military parades are to be hosted by 50 other towns and cities nationwide. Similar celebrations were held in almost all the former republics of the Soviet Union.