Russia to invite Macron for military parade as COVID-19 death toll crosses 4,000

As Russia prepares for a parade in Moscow to celebrate country's victory in World War-II, the death toll in the country due to coronavirus crossed to over 4,000 with the daily death toll equalling the record set earlier in the week.

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President Putin had earlier announced that French President Macron would also be invited as the country would be  "reissuing invitations" to world leaders to attend the massive military parade on June 24.

The Russian President had given the go ahead for the parade after announcing that the country had passed the coronavirus peak. The country has the third-highest cases of coronavirus in the world after the United States and Brazil with  379,051 confirmed cases.

The country recorded COVID-19 4,142 fatalities with the number of one day deaths climbing to 174 in the last 24 hours. Moscow which has been the epicentre of the virus in the country recorded 2,054 new cases even as the city's Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said lockdown would be lifted from June 1.

Russia's northern Caucasus region of Dagestan has become another hotspot with the military helping the area to set up tents and field hospitals.

The Russian defence ministry has sent soldiers and medical specialists to deal with the mounting coronavirus crisis after Putin said called for "urgent measures" to restore order in the virus-hit region.

The defence ministry said it had dispatched 20,000 virus test kits to deal with the crisis with the area recording  4,455 and 130 deaths on Wednesday.