Moscow (Victory Day Flypast) – Wednesday 24th June 2020 (Gavin Maxwell)

Updated 29th July 2020

DIN POBEDA is Russian for Victory Day and normally is held on May 9th each year, when there is a massive celebration, in all major Russian Cities, of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany in 1945. The reason we in the West celebrate VE Day on May 8th and Russia is May 9th is due to the time difference between Moscow and Europe as the Nazi surrender was signed very late at night. This year was the 75th anniversary, however due to the Covid-19 pandemic we only had the flypast of 75 aircraft on May 9th. Victory Day is a massive holiday for Russians and other former Soviet nations who sacrificed 27 million people in what the Russians call the Great Patriotic War against Fascism and so a rerun of the full event on the June 24th was chosen.

The 24th June was chosen deliberately as it was the date in 1945 that Josef Stalin had a massive Victory Parade in Red Square with 30,000 troops having returned from the front with their tanks and vehicles driving through Red Square. The date was therefore seen as apt for the rerun of the full celebration of the 75th anniversary.

The flypast involves aircraft from 8 different air bases and they form up around Kubinka air base west of Moscow, and approach Sheremetyevo airport North of Moscow, before turning south down Leningradsky prospect, flying over Moscow Dynamo football stadium towards Tverskaya Street then over Red Square at between 500 and 1000ft before dispersing and heading either back to Kubinka or their home base. All flights from Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo are stopped for a period to allow safe passage for this massive formation of aircraft.

It starts with a Mi-26 (Russians call it the flying cow) in a Chevron with 4 Mi8AMT’s followed by another three chevrons of 5 helicopters each. The helicopters depart usually depart Kubinka and have to fly minutes ahead of the following 52 jets and 3 Tu-95 Bears which catch up approaching Red Square, but the helicopters departed Klinn on this occasion. This year the Russians showed four of their new Su-57 fifth Generation Stealth fighter’s and 4 Mig31K’s each armed with the new Kinzhal hypersonic missile.

There was one practice run on the 20th June however the aircraft are generally the same with the possibility of a couple of changes to the smaller types.

The bases the flypast come from are Kubinka, Tver, Shaikovka, Engels, Ivanovo, Ryazan, Zhukovsky, Lipetsk and Torzhok however the helicopters all took off from Klin. The Russian Knights, Strizi, MiG29’s and Su25’s all came from Kubinka.

We had many visitors bringing in foreign troops for the parade, 20041 Y-20 from China, Indian C-17 CB-8004, Belarus, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan Il-76’s and a Kazakh SU95.

 

The line-up order today was as follows;

 

Mil Mi-26 Halo, 05 yellow/RF-93527

Mil Mi-8AMT Hip, 38 red

Mil Mi-8AMT Hip, 43 red/RF-04538

Mil Mi-8AMT Hip, 36 yellow

Mil Mi-8AMT Hip, 57 yellow

Mil Mi-24P Hind-F, 58 yellow

Mil Mi-24P Hind-F, 44 red

Mil Mi-24P Hind-F, 55 red?

Mil Mi-24P Hind-F, 53 red?

Mil Mi-24P Hind-F, 57 red

Kamov Ka-52 Hokum-B, ?? red

Kamov Ka-52 Hokum-B, ?? red

Kamov Ka-52 Hokum-B, ?? yellow

Kamov Ka-52 Hokum-B, ?? yellow

Kamov Ka-52 Hokum-B, ?? yellow

Mil Mi-28H Havoc, 07 yellow/RF-95324

Mil Mi-28H Havoc, 08 yellow/RF-95320

Mil Mi-28H Havoc, 11 yellow/RF-95325

Mil Mi-28H Havoc, 52 yellow/RF-13492

Mil Mi-28H Havoc, 71 yellow/RF-95345

Beriev A-50 Mainstay, 42 red/RF-50610 (c/n 00934 84538), 2457 DRLO (Ivanovo)

Ilyushin IL-76MD Candid, RF-78805 (c/n 00934 92783), 196th VTAP (Tver)

Ilyushin IL-76MD Candid, RF-78809 (c/n 00934 93807), 196th VTAP (Tver)

Ilyushin IL-76MD Candid, RF-86872 (c/n 00134 34008), 196th VTAP (Tver)

Tupolev Tu-95MS Bear-H, 24 red/RF-94130

Tupolev Tu-95MS Bear-H, ?? red

Tupolev Tu-95MS Bear-H, 23 red/RF-94129

Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack, 02 red/RF-94102 (Vasili Reshetnikov)

Tupolev Tu-22M3 Backfire-C, 02 red/RF-34110

Tupolev Tu-22M3 Backfire-C, 11 red/RF-94147

Tupolev Tu-22M3 Backfire-C, 28 red/RF-94157

Tupolev Tu-22M3 Backfire-C, 12 red/RF-94234

Ilyushin IL-78 Midas, 78 blue/RF-94281 (c/n 00834 89678), 203rd APSZ (Ryazan)

Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack, 10 red/RF-94100

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29SMT Fulcrum-D, 24 blue/RF-90857

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29SMT Fulcrum-D, 26 blue/RF-92307

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29SMT Fulcrum-D, 35 blue/RF-92314

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29UB Fulcrum-B, 59 blue/RF-92114

Sukhoi Su-24SM Fencer, 48 red/RF-93597

Sukhoi Su-24SM Fencer, 47 red/RF-95091

Sukhoi Su-24SM Fencer, 23 red/RF-91???

Sukhoi Su-24SM Fencer, 53 red/RF-91993

 

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-31K Foxhound, 89 red

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-31K Foxhound, 96 red

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-31K Foxhound, 92 red/RF-95217

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-31K Foxhound, 98 red/RF-92457

 

Sukhoi Su-57 Felon, 051 blue, Sukhoi OKB

Sukhoi Su-57 Felon, 054 blue, Sukhoi OKB

Sukhoi Su-57 Felon, 055 blue, Sukhoi OKB

Sukhoi Su-57 Felon, 058 blue, Sukhoi OKB

 

Sukhoi Su-34 Fullback, 11 red/RF-81855

Sukhoi Su-34 Fullback, 21 red/RF-93819?

Sukhoi Su-34 Fullback, 27 red/RF-95809

Sukhoi Su-34 Fullback, 25 red/RF-81877

Sukhoi Su-30SM Flanker-H, 62 red/RF-81773

Sukhoi Su-30SM Flanker-H, 64 red

Sukhoi Su-30SM Flanker-H, 57 red/RF-81768

Sukhoi Su-30SM Flanker-H, 60 red/RF-81771

Sukhoi Su-27SM Flanker-B, 10 red

Sukhoi Su-27SM Flanker-B, 12 red?

 

Sukhoi Su-30SM Flanker-H, 36 blue/RF-81721, Russian Knights

Sukhoi Su-30SM Flanker-H, Russian Knights

Sukhoi Su-30SM Flanker-H, Russian Knights

Sukhoi Su-30SM Flanker-H, Russian Knights

Sukhoi Su-30SM Flanker-H, Russian Knights

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29UB Fulcrum-B, 02 blue/RF-91946, Strizi (Swifts)

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29UB Fulcrum-B, 16 blue/RF-92113, Strizi (Swifts)

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29UB Fulcrum-B, 17 blue/RF-92810, Strizi (Swifts)

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29UB Fulcrum-B, 18 blue/RF-92300, Strizi (Swifts)

 

Sukhoi Su-25SM Frogfoot, 71 red/RF-91976

Sukhoi Su-25SM Frogfoot, 81 red/RF-95155

Sukhoi Su-25SM Frogfoot, 83 red/RF-95157

Sukhoi Su-25SM Frogfoot, 73 red/RF-95158

Sukhoi Su-25SM Frogfoot, 74 red/RF-95159

Sukhoi Su-25UB Frogfoot, 89 red/RF-93616

Photo credits: Gavin Maxwell

 

Best regards,

Gavin Maxwell