Thousands attend parade in Belarus amid rising coronavirus cases

Thousands attend parade in Belarus amid rising coronavirus cases

Tens of thousands of people have turned out in the Belarus capital Minsk, despite sharply rising coronavirus infections, to watch a military parade celebrating the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Second World War.

Belarus has not imposed wide-ranging restrictions and authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko has dismissed concerns as a “psychosis”.

At Saturday’s parade of 3,000 soldiers, Mr Lukashenko said Belarus’s ordeal in the war “is incomparable with any difficulties of the present day”.

Some veterans in the stands at the parade wore masks, but in general there were few to be seen in the throng of spectators.

Belarus, a country of about nine million, has recorded more than 21,000 cases of coronavirus infection.