Russian President Vladimir Putin has congratulated the people of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR) amid the 77th anniversary of the Soviet Union's WWII victory against the Third Reich. He stressed that the DPR and LPR military are currently fighting to be liberated from Nazism just like their ancestors had done in the Great Patriotic War.
The president also expressed confidence that just like in 1945, the people of the Donbass will prevail and be victorious.
In his holiday messages to other countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Putin stressed the need to prevent the re-emergence of Nazism, which brought so much suffering and woe in the past to people in many countries.
"We have to preserve and pass on to our posterity the truth about the events of [World War II], our common spiritual values and traditions of fraternal friendship", Putin said in his message to other leaders.
The soldiers of the DPR and LPR are fighting alongside Russian troops against the Ukrainian military and neo-Nazi battalions. Russian President Vladimir Putin authorised the use of the country's forces as a part of the special military operation, which he justified by citing the need to protect the Donbass republics.
Putin argued that the people of the DPR and LPR have been subjected to the "genocide" by "Kiev's regime", which was "hijacked" by nationalists and neo-Nazis after the West-backed coup in 2014. He added that Russia could no longer stay indifferent and was forced to intervene in the situation, launching the special military operation on 24 February.
"The attempt to appease the aggressor on the eve of the Great Patriotic War turned out to be a mistake that cost our people dearly," Putin said on 24 February when he announced the special military operation in Ukraine.