A giant Victory Day parade took place yesterday in Russia, despite the ongoing coronavirus epidemic, the BBC reports.
Many veterans in their nineties turned out for the parade to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, a war in which Russia paid a massive price in lives.
"The whole country had been preparing all year for the Victory Day parade," retired naval officer Alexander Goncharov told the BBC, noting that the event had been postponed from its original date which was set for May 9th.
He added that those veterans who were allocated seats closest to President Putin had spent over a fortnight in quarantine at a sanatorium near Moscow, with regular health checks and tests for coronavirus.
"They were sure they'd be OK. They shook hands with the president with no gloves or anything," Goncharov said. "If the leader of the country is not afraid, then I'm sure the veterans are confident too."