Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin and his counterpart from Belarus on Tuesday unveiled a monument honoring the fallen Red Army soldiers who fought in one of the most bloody battles of World War II.
Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko traveled to the village of Khoroshevo, just outside Rzhev, about 200 kilometers northwest of Moscow for a somber ceremony that involved goose-stepping troops laying wreaths to the towering figure of a soldier.
The battle of Rzhev, in which the Red Army launched a series of offensives in 1942-1943 to dislodge the Wehrmacht from its positions close to Moscow, involved enormous Soviet losses from persistent, poorly prepared attacks against well-fortified Nazi positions.
Putin said 1.3 million Red Army soldiers were killed, wounded in combat, or went missing in action during the fighting around Rzhev that raged for more than a year.
The battle, which became known as 'the Rzhev meat grinder', was largely neglected by Soviet propaganda and official historians because of the Red Army's huge losses and its generals' blunders.
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President Putin said the new monument would immortalize the soldier that saved Europe and the entire world from Nazism. He added Russia would not allow lies and falsifications to tarnish the memory of the Soviet role in the victory against Nazi Germany.
Putin unveiled the monument a day before a nationwide vote on constitutional amendments in Russia that, if passed, would allow him to remain in power until 2036.
Lukashenko, who is running for re-election in August and has faced rising discontent from opposition-minded Belarusians at home, said at the ceremony on Tuesday that the monument would forever be a symbol of the indestructible friendship between Russia and Belarus.
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He added that Minsk is united with Moscow in standing against a belittling of the meaning of the great victory, or attempts to twist the truth of that time and rehabilitate Nazism.
The Soviet Union lost a staggering 27 million people in what is called the Great Patriotic War.
Victory Day, which is celebrated on May 9, is the nation's most important secular holiday.
The Red Square parade, postponed this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, was held on June 24, marking the day in 1945 when the first parade was held on Red Square after the defeat of Nazi Germany.
(AP)
