Belarus holds Victory Day parade, disregarding coronavirus

MINSK, Belarus — The japanese European nation of Belarus held a bulky-fledged militia parade Saturday to label Victory Day, shrugging off security considerations for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic that led Russia to curtail its own long-planned 75th anniversary observances.

Tens of thousands of spectators lined the parade route as some 3,000 troopers and 185 militia autos passed by in the capital, Minsk.

Some elderly veterans staring at from a stand wore masks, but few face coverings or different protective measures were viewed in the throng of viewers alongside the boulevard.

Belarus’ authoritarian president has pushed aside the coronavirus as a “psychosis,” no topic the possibility of confirmed circumstances in the country substantially exceeding these in neighboring Ukraine and Poland, which accept as true with populations about four times as tall as Belarus.

President Alexander Lukashenko opened the parade, asserting the suffering of Belarus for the duration of World Struggle II “is incomparable with any difficulties of the conceal day.”

Belarus turned into proportionately the toughest-hit of the Soviet republics for the duration of the battle. An estimated 1.6 million civilians and 600,000 troopers died, or about 25% of the inhabitants. As much as 85% of Minsk turned into leveled in bombing raids.

The World Neatly being Group had known as on Belarus to abolish Victory Day events, but Lukashenko talked about he felt morally obliged to veterans and the country to label Nazi Germany’s defeat. On Saturday, he known as staring at Victory Day a “sacred action.”

Spectator Anatoly Kudryanok, who failed to wear a veil, talked about he agreed with the president’s place.

“I don’t feel hazard, I don’t give in to psychosis. The president talked about that our medication will cope with the total lot. There is now not any apprehension,” talked about Kudryanok, who watched the parade alongside with his wife and 8-year-damaged-down son.

However creator Svetlana Alexievich, winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize for literature, harshly criticized Lukashenko, who has stifled opposition for the duration of his quarter-century tenure as Belarusian president.

“The much will of this person is in a deliver to subjugate an infinite country, and no one is there who will describe him that here’s crazy,” Alexievich advised journalists.

Belarus, with a inhabitants of about 9 million, has recorded extra than 21,000 confirmed coronavirus circumstances, including 933 new circumstances in the past day, and 121 deaths, with

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Jim Heintz in Moscow contributed to this story.