Russia cancels annual navy parade for ‘security reasons'
MOSCOW: Russia said on Sunday a major annual navy parade had been cancelled for 'security reasons', without specifying the threat or concern. 'It has to do with the general situation. Security reasons are of utmost importance,' said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, quoted by Russian news agencies.
The parade was meant to be the highlight of Russia's Navy Day, which falls on the last Sunday of July each year and honors the country's sailors.
But local authorities in the coastal city of Saint Petersburg, where the warships and submarines were scheduled to pass, said on Friday the parade had been cancelled without giving a reason. Russian President Vladimir Putin — who re-established Navy Day in 2017, nearly four decades after it was cancelled in Soviet times — appeared in a video message hailing the 'bravery' and 'heroism' of Russia's sailors participating in the offensive in Ukraine.
'We are celebrating the holiday in a working atmosphere,' Putin said later on Sunday, in a video address to Russian forces involved in large-scale naval maneuvers called 'July Storm'. The drills, launched earlier this week in the Baltic and Caspian seas as well as in the Arctic and Pacific oceans, involved more than 150 ships and over 15,000 troops, Putin said.
'Our main task is to ensure Russia's security and firmly protect the sovereignty and national interests,' Putin said in Saint Petersburg, where he was travelling on Sunday, according to the Kremlin. Russia, which launched its military operation on Ukraine in February 2022 with daily bombardments of its neighbor, has faced retaliatory Ukrainian drone strikes on its territory in recent months.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian drones targeted St. Petersburg on Sunday, Russian authorities said, forcing the airport to close for five hours as Vladimir Putin marked Russia's Navy Day in the city, despite the earlier cancellation of its naval parade due to security concerns. St Petersburg usually holds a large-scale, televised navy parade on Navy Day, which features a flotilla of warships and military vessels sailing down the Neva River and is attended by Putin.
Last year, Russia suspected a Ukrainian plan to attack the city's parade, according to state television.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Sunday that this year's parade had been cancelled for security reasons, following first reports of its cancellation in early July. Putin arrived at the city's historic naval headquarters on Sunday by patrol speed boat, from where he followed drills involving more than 150 vessels and 15,000 military personnel in the Pacific and Arctic Oceans and Baltic and Caspian Seas.
'Today we are marking this holiday in a working setting, we are inspecting the combat readiness of the fleet,' Putin said in a video address. The Russian Defense Ministry said air defense units downed a total of 291 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones on Sunday, below a record 524 drones downed in attacks on May 7, ahead of Russia's Victory Day parade on May 9.
Alexander Drozdenko, governor of the Leningrad region surrounding St Petersburg, said that over ten drones were downed over the area, and falling debris injured a woman. At 0840 GMT on Sunday Drozdenko said that the attack was repelled. St Petersburg's Pulkovo airport was closed during the attack, with 57 flights delayed and 22 diverted to other airports, according to a statement. Pulkovo resumed operations later on Sunday. Russian blogger Alexander Yunashev, part of an official group of reporters travelling with Peskov, said Peskov had told him their flight from Moscow to St Petersburg had been delayed by the drone attack for two hours on Sunday. — Agencies
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