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