World Leaders Celebrate the 80th Anniversary of the Red Army’s Victory Over the Nazis
World leaders at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Moscow, Russia, May 9, 2025. X/ @cuba_embajada
May 9, 2025 Hour: 10:43 am
The commemoration brought together government representatives from 27 nations.
On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and representatives from 27 countries laid a floral wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier after participating in the military parade on Moscow’s Red Square.
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The wreath-laying ceremony is part of the commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of the Red Army’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. Latin American leaders such as Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel were present at the commemorative events.
The ceremony took place in the Alexander Garden, adjacent to the Kremlin wall, where foreign dignitaries observed a minute of silence in honor of the fallen soldiers of the 1941–1945 conflict.
The tribute followed the massive military parade held in Red Square, where over 10,000 cadets and troops from 13 countries marched in front of the official tribune. Among them were veterans of Russia’s current special military operation in Ukraine.
In a symbolic gesture, soldiers from the Kremlin Regiment laid wreaths on the Avenue of Hero Cities, where stone blocks containing soil from various cities of the former USSR commemorate the bravery and resilience of those territories during the war.
The commemoration brought together government representatives from 27 nations, including Abkhazia, Armenia, Belarus, Brazil, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burkina Faso, China, Congo, Cuba, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Myanmar, Palestine, Serbia, Slovakia, South Ossetia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.
The military parade was preceded by the presentation of the Russian national flag and the Victory Banner in Red Square. Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, alongside the Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces, General Oleg Salyukov, reviewed the troops assembled before the presidential tribune.
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, built in 1967 on the 25th anniversary of the Battle of Moscow (1941–1942), contains the remains of an unidentified soldier exhumed from a mass grave and stands as one of the most significant monuments in Moscos, serving as a central site for ceremonies and military tributes.
teleSUR/ JF
Sources: EFE – teleSUR
