MOSCOW. May 3 (Interfax) - More than 9,000 people and 70 pieces of military hardware will take part in the Victory Day parade on Moscow's Red Square on May 9, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said.
"More than 9,000 people and 70 pieces of hardware will take part in the main military parade on Red Square," Shoigu said at a teleconference with Russian Armed Forces commanders on Friday.
"Special military operation participants will also march on Red Square. A fly-past by the Russkiye Vityazi and Strizhi aerobatics groups will wrap up the parade," he said.
The marching element of the parade will involve formations of regiments, battalions and companies from different branches of the Armed Forces, students of the Suvorov and Nakhimov Military Schools, cadets, army music school students, Young Army movement members, female service members, Cossacks, and a combined military band, he said.
The final rehearsal for the parade dedicated to the 79th anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War has been scheduled for May 5, Shoigu said.
May 9 military parades will also take place in seven hero cities and 18 cities hosting the headquarters of military districts, fleets and combined-arms armies, he said. May 9 celebrations involving servicemen from local garrisons will be organized in 314 communities.
"In total, Victory Day celebrations will involve around 150,000 people and 2,500 weapons and pieces of military hardware," he said.
An exhibition of foreign weapons and military hardware captured during the special military operation in Ukraine has been opened on Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow on the occasion of the May 9 Victory Day, Shoigu said.
"The exhibits include American Abrams and Bradley [vehicles], German Leopard and Marder [vehicles], and other foreign weapons, some of them made in the UK, the Czech Republic, France and Finland," Shoigu said.
The exhibition will run through the end of May, he said. Over 83,000 people visited it on the first day.