Clouds stop Putin fighter jets Russia cancels air show at military parade
05/09/2022 12:42
The “Z” is the symbol of the Russian attack on Ukraine. On Victory Day, 77 planes and helicopters must paint the letters in formation in the air. But then they are stopped by the supposedly bad weather.
The Russian leadership canceled the air show at the Moscow military parade. “The shoot will not happen because of the weather,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state news agency TASS. Originally, 77 planes and helicopters were supposed to participate in the military parade. According to media reports, the plan was for the fighters to form a “Z” in the sky.
A senior Phobos Weather Center official made the statement to state news agency RIA Novosti. He described the weather conditions as “difficult”. So the cloud cover on the morning of the parade was only 300 meters high and therefore too low for the show.
Moscow in May 2021: …
(Photo: picture Alliance/dpa/TASS)
During the parade, however, only a few clouds could be seen in the sky. When Russian President Vladimir Putin took the stage and delivered his speech, it was clear to cloudy over Red Square in Moscow. There was no rain. Only light clouds and low wind speeds were predicted for the later course.
Meteorologist was optimistic
… It’s clearly more cloudy. However, Putin’s fighter jets fly.
(Photo: picture Alliance/dpa/TASS)
This representation fits with information that the director of the Gidrometzentr state weather service, Roman Wilfand, had made the night before. He didn’t see any weather-related dangers, as cloud cover was supposed to be more than 300 meters and clouds could also be dispersed with chemicals. In the May 2021 military parade, the air show took place despite heavy cloud cover and rainy weather.
Air shows as part of the military parade were also canceled in other megacities such as Saint Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk and Samara. In the Far East region, in the cities of Khabarovsk and Komsomolsk-on-Amur, previously planned flights were also cancelled. In the city of Volgograd, which was renamed Stalingrad for a day to mark the anniversary of the end of the World War, the Luftwaffe could be seen in the parade.
This is not the first time Russia has fought the climate since it started attacking Ukraine. Citing the Ministry of Defense, state agency TASS announced in April that the missile cruiser Moskva, the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet, sank during a storm. Even so, there was no bad weather to be seen in the weather reports. The Ukrainian army claims they sank the ship with Neptune-type missiles.