Local authorities announced on Friday the cancellation of the naval parade and the traditional fireworks for this celebration, celebrated in Russia on the last Sunday in July, without any explanation being provided.
Russia, which marks this Sunday, July 27, the Russian fleet day, canceled a large naval parade scheduled for this occasion for “security reasons”, the Kremlin announced.
“Security reasons are essential,” insisted his spokesperson, Dmitri Peskov, quoted by Russian press agencies, explaining the cancellation of this parade organized since 2017 in Saint Petersburg (north-west), with the participation of surface ships and submarines, to spread Russian naval power.
Local authorities announced on Friday the cancellation of the naval parade and the traditional fireworks for this celebration, celebrated in Russia on the last Sunday in July, without any explanation being provided.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had attended this parade in person each year, congratulated the Russian Navy in a video message, welcoming in particular the “audacity” and the “heroism” of the Russian sailors participating in the military operation in Ukraine.
“We are celebrating the party in a working atmosphere,” said Putin later in the day, addressing the Russian soldiers involved in large naval maneuvers baptized “storm of July”.
These exercises, started on July 23 and supposed to end Sunday in the Baltic, Caspian seas and in the Arctic and Pacific Oceans, involve more than 150 ships and more than 15,000 soldiers, according to the Russian head of state.
“Our main task is to ensure the security of Russia and to firmly protect the sovereignty and national interests of the fatherland. The Russian fleet has an immense role to play in there,” said Putin, of Saint Petersburg where he was on the move on Sunday, according to the Kremlin press service.
Ukrainian response
Russia, which launched a large -scale assault against its Ukrainian neighbor in February 2022, bombing its cities and villages daily, is in turn targeted in response by daily attacks of Ukrainian drones.
Thus, a hundred Ukrainian machines were killed by the Russian anti -aircraft defense overnight on Saturday to Sunday, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
More than ten drones were in particular intercepted in the Leningrad region, not far from Saint Petersburg, where a woman was injured, deplored on Telegram the regional governor Alexandre Drozdenko.
This raid also disrupted the operation of the Poulkovo airport in Saint Petersburg where dozens of flights have been delayed, according to airport authorities.
