CIS Envoys to US Thank World War II Veterans, Allies for Sacrifices to Achieve Victory
15:16 GMT 09.05.2022 (Updated: 15:17 GMT 09.05.2022)
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WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) ambassadors on Monday wished Happy Victory Day and expressed gratitude to the veterans of the Second World War and the allies for their sacrifices to achieve victory in the war.
"Our sacred duty is to preserve and pass on to future generations the truth about the Great Patriotic War," the envoys said in a joint statement. "A low bow and deep gratitude to the veterans of the armies of the anti-Hitler coalition who fought for our freedom during the Second World War. Your heroism will forever be in our hearts."
The joint statement was issued on the occasion of the Victory Day by the Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov, Kyrgyzstan Ambassador to the United States Bakyt Amanbaev, Kazakhstan Ambassador to the United States Yerzhan Ashikbayev, Belarus Embassy charge d'affaires Dmitry Basik, Uzbekistan Ambassador to the United States Djavlon Vahabov, Turkmenistan Ambassador to the United States Meret Orazov and Tajikistan Ambassador to the United States Farrukh Hamralizoda.
"This year the world celebrates the 77th anniversary of the sacred holiday - the Great Victory Day. In the spring of 1945, the multinational people of the USSR, together with their allies in the anti-Hitler coalition, delivered the planet from the yoke of Nazi tyranny," the statement said. "The unparalleled heroism of the great generation of victors made it possible to overthrow the misanthropic ideology."
The envoys emphasized that in the battles near Moscow and on the Kursk Bulge, in besieged Leningrad and on the streets of Stalingrad, representatives of all nationalities of the USSR stood shoulder to shoulder, defending their common homeland.
"Their courage and selflessness at the front and in the rear, as well as in the partisan detachments, made it possible to first stop and then crush the Nazi army," they said in the statement. "Our ancestors not only defended the independence of the Motherland, but also saved the world from the 'brown plague.' The Soviet warrior-liberator rescued hundreds of thousands of prisoners of concentration camps from captivity."
The envoys went on to say that the victory came at a huge cost as 27 million of their compatriots died in the war and almost half of the victims were civilians.
"Hitler's executioners and their henchmen strove for the total destruction of the peoples of the USSR, sparing neither women, nor the elderly, nor children," they said. "We gratefully remember the help of the allies at that fateful time. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the launch of the Alaska-Siberia air route, through which about eight thousand aircraft were delivered to the USSR from the United States during the war years."
Russia and many former Soviet republics celebrate Victory in Europe Day on 9 May. Major Russian cities hosted military parades to mark 77 year anniversary of the victory in the Second World War.