It’s 3 p.m. in Kyiv. Here’s what you need to know about Russia’s Victory Day and the fighting in Ukraine.
Air shows scheduled for Victory Day have been canceled in places across Russia, including Moscow, St. Petersburg and the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, Russian news agency TASS reported on Monday.
The decision raised eyebrows among foreign military analysts watching the Victory Day parade in Moscow on Monday. The parade was to feature 77 aircraft flying over the capital’s Red Square, including eight MiG-29 fighters flying in a “Z” formation to show support for Russian troops fighting in Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Moscow air show was canceled due to weather conditions, according to the official RIA Novosti news agency. Aviation shows were also canceled in Samara, Kaliningrad and Murmansk, TASS wrote.
It sounds amazing. It looked sunny from what I saw. The only excuse would be strong crosswinds at the airbases the planes were coming from,” Peter Layton, a fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute in Australia and a former officer in the Australian Air Force, told CNN.
During the parade in Moscow, winds were sustained at around 15 mph, with reported gusts of around 30 mph at 11 a.m. local time. Cloud cover also increased throughout the morning with mostly cloudy skies during the parade, according to CNN meteorologist Monica Garrett.
Light rain was reported after 12:30 p.m. local time.
The only planned flypast in southern Russia, which was to be held in the city of Rostov-on-Don, did not take place, TASS said, citing the press service of the Southern Military District.
