June 22, the day when
Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union, is marked across Russia as Day of
Remembrance and Sorrow.
MOSCOW, June 22.
/TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has laid a wreath by the Tomb of the
Unknown Soldier at the Kremlin Wall to pay homage to the Soviet military who
perished during the Great Patriotic War that Russia fought against Nazi Germany
in 1941-1945.
June 22, the day when
Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union, is marked across Russia as Day of
Remembrance and Sorrow. Also taking part in the ceremony were war veterans,
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Cabinet ministers, the leadership of the
presidential administration, parliamentarians from the upper and lower houses
of the Russian parliament, top military leadership, representatives of the main
confessions and cadets.
Soldiers from the
Guard of Honor positioned the wreath with a tricolor ribbon the signature on
which reads "To the Unknown Soldier from the president of the Russian
Federation".
Putin arranged the
ribbons and bowed in memory of the war victims. Then, other participants in the
ceremony also put flowers by the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
The remembrance event
continued with a military band playing a march. At the end of the ceremony,
Putin laid flowers on the Alley of Hero Cities.
Nazi Germany attacked
the Soviet Union in the small hours of June 22, 1941 without a declaration of
war. Thousands of Red Army military and civilians were killed on the very first
day of the war, and a total of 1,200 planes, tanks and artillery weapons were
destroyed.
The remains of an
unknown Soviet soldier were relocated to the Kremlin Wall from a mass grave
outside Moscow in 1966. A memorial was opened there the following year, its key
element being the Eternal Flame. The Guard of Honor at the Tomb of the Unknown
Soldier was deployed in 1997.
Source: ITAR-TASS
22-06-2018
