RUSSIANS marked the 75th anniversary of the Red Army’s victory at the Battle of Stalingrad yesterday, attending a military parade and laying wreaths to honour the soldiers who died defending the city.

Seventy-five tanks, one for each year that has passed since the nazi surrender on February 2 1943, rolled through Volgograd, as Stalingrad was renamed in 1961, while 50 aircraft and 1,500 soldiers also took part in the commemoration.

Stalingrad has been called the bloodiest battle in history, with more than a million deaths in over five months of brutal close-quarters fighting.