Vladimir Putin supervised this Sunday naval parade in St. Petersburg which brought together in this former imperial capital more than 40 ships and submarines and some 3,500 military personnel on the occasion of the Day of the Russian Navy, widely celebrated throughout the country.
“Greetings comrades! I congratulate you on the Day of the Navy!” Putin said aboard the boat with which he crossed the waters of the Gulf of Finland accompanied by Defense Minister Sergey Shoigú.
According to the Kremlin, more than 40 ships, submarines and boats, 42 planes and more than 3,500 soldiers participated in the naval parade, although similar events are held in other ports such as the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad.
The Russian fleet “is capable of inflicting a withering response on all those who decide to attack our sovereignty and freedom,” Putin said during a naval parade in St. Petersburg, stressing that its military equipment “is constantly being improved.”
“The Motherland is a sacred notion for all of us, and defending it is a duty and the meaning of life for each of us,” the Kremlin leader added.
Putin got on a boat with which he traveled in the waters of Saint Petersburg and the island of Kronstadt in the Gulf of Finland, where the event took place.
In Sevastopol, in Russian-annexed Crimea, the festivities were canceled after a drone attack on the Russian Black Sea Fleet headquarters left six injured. Local authorities accused “Ukrainian nationalists” of carrying out the attack, but Ukraine denied this.
Since the beginning of the military intervention in the neighboring country, the Russian fleet has played an active role in attacking Ukrainian territory with missiles.
In April, Russia suffered its greatest setback with the sinking at the hands of Ukraine of the flagship of its fleet in the Black Sea, the Moskva missile cruiser, where some thirty sailors would have died.
By seizing the ports of Mariupol (Donetsk) and Berdyansk (Zaporijia) and creating a land corridor to the annexed Crimean peninsula, the Russian fleet turned Azov into an inland sea, although some experts encourage the Kremlin to leave Ukraine also without outlet to the Black Sea.
(With photos from AP, Reuters, Sputnik)
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Source-www.infobae.com