Moscow, Jul 28 (IANS): Over 200 naval vessels, including ships from the Indian, Chinese, and Algerian navies, took part in the traditional maritime parade in St Petersburg to mark Russia's Navy Day on Sunday.
President Vladimir Putin, Defense Minister Andrey Belousov, and Commander-in-Chief of the Navy Admiral Aleksandr Moiseyev oversaw the parade, which takes place on the last Sunday of July, RT reported.
In his address on the occasion, President Putin vowed that Russia would continue to strengthen its naval forces and modernise its fleets with high-tech assets, including hypersonic missiles.
Over 15,000 service members and vessels of various classes drawn from Russia’s Northern, Pacific, and Baltic fleets, the Caspian flotilla, as well as members of the naval force expedition in Syria, participated in the event. However, ships from the Black Sea Fleet were absent as they were engaged in active operations in the Ukraine conflict.
The parade is traditionally led by the Poltava, a reconstructed 18th-century 54-gun sailing ship. The original ship, launched in 1712, was named after the site of the battle where Russia won a crushing victory over Sweden in 1709, turning the tide of the Great Northern War and paving the way for Russia to become a major world power.
Another highlight of the parade was patrol icebreaker, ‘Ivan Papanin’, specifically designed for Arctic conditions. Russia currently possesses the largest icebreaker fleet in the world, numbering more than 40 vessels.
Other ships in the parade included several small-sized missile ships and corvettes, usually armed with Kalibr cruise missiles, which have a range of more than 1,000km.
The submarine force was represented by the diesel-electric submarine ‘Mozhaisk’, which can be armed with torpedoes or Kalibr missiles.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Navy's destroyer ‘Jiaozuo’ and replenishment ship ‘Honghu’, the Algerian Navy training ship ‘La Soummam’, and the Indian Navy's Russia-made Talwar-class stealth frigate ‘Tabar’, also took part.
The naval parade was followed by a parade on land, which included cadets from several Russian naval institutions, as well as a detachment of marines.