Military planes fly above a statue of Soviet Union founder Vladimir Lenin during a Naval parade rehearsal in St. Petersburg, Russia, Thursday, July 25, 2019. The celebration of Navy Day in Russia is traditionally marked on the last Sunday of July and will be celebrated on July 28 this year. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

Russian Boxing Federation lifts a portrait of late Soviet leader Joseph Stalin with a hot air balloon, close to city of Belogorsk outside Simferopol, Crimea, on May 11, 2020, to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II also called the Great Patriotic War, amid the coronavirus (COVID) pandemic. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)

A man wearing a face mask walks past a picture of a Russian tank in central Moscow on June 18, 2020. Russia's President Putin on June 24 will preside over a massive military parade to mark Soviet victory in World War II, which was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Yuri Kadobnov/AFP Photo)

People take pictures near a Soviet flag flying on an embankment in Saint Petersburg, Russia on June 17, 2023. The flags of Russia, the USSR, and the Russian Empire were installed on the shore to mark the anniversaries of each flag's adoption. (Photo by Anton Vaganov/Reuters)

A Ukrainian serviceman of the 65th mechanized brigade smoke on position of a Soviet-made 2s1 Gvozdyka 120mm howitzer in the Zaporizhia region, Ukraine, 15 November 2023, amid the Russian invasion. Russian troops entered Ukrainian territory in February 2022, starting a conflict that has provoked destruction and a humanitarian crisis. (Photo by Kateryna Klochko/EPA)

Kalei Ferrin,3, holds a sign up in support of gay rights during the San Diego gay pride parade July 16, 2011 in San Diego, California. About 200 active-duty troops and veterans from every branch of the military participated for the first time in the march as the ban on the government policy on homosexuals serving in armed forces, or “Don't ask Don't Tell”, remains in flux in the justice system. (Photo by Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)

Second World War veteran 90 year old William Walker launches the Scottish Poppy Appeal, together with soldiers from the Royal Highland Fusiliers, 2nd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland, on October 27, 2011 in Penicuick, Scotland. Mr Walker, who was wounded while serving in Burma in 1943 with the Royal Scots, helped the soldiers form the shape of ninety to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the annual November campaign. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Ground personnel work next to the Soyuz TMA-13M capsule of the International Space Station (ISS) crew of Alexander Gerst of Germany, Maxim Suraev of Russia and Reid Wiseman of the U.S. after its landing near the town of Arkalyk in northern Kazakhstan November 10, 2014. A veteran Russian cosmonaut and two International Space Station crewmates, one from the United States and one from Germany, returned safely to Earth on Sunday with a parachute landing of their Soyuz capsule in Kazakhstan, ending 5-1/2 months in orbit. (Photo by Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters)