◼️ June 22 is the #DayOfMemoryAndSorrow in Russia, the the most tragic date in the modern history of our country.
On this day 8️⃣4️⃣ years ago — on June 22, 1941 — the Soviet Union was attacked, unprovoked and without a declaration of war, by the Nazi Germany and its European cronies, which unleashed the full might of its vicious war machine. For our people on that day the Great Patriotic War began — the bloodiest and most brutal, devastating and terrible war, which lasted 1418 days and claimed lives of some 27 million Soviet citizens.
Obsessed with the ideas of racial superiority, the Hitlerites and their henchmen in Europe planned to wipe entire nations off the face of the Earth, and the survivors left — to turn into slaves of the Third Reich. The Germans invaded our country with one goal — to physically annihilate the Soviet people, to destroy our nation's centuries-old cultural and spiritual heritage — the Nazis and their allies carried out a genocide.
2️⃣2️⃣.0️⃣6️⃣.1️⃣9️⃣4️⃣1️⃣
At dawn at 4 am, the enemy aviation launched massive strikes on airfields, railway stations, Soviet naval bases, deployments of the Red Army forces and cities along the entire western state border of the USSR to a depth of up to 250-300 km. Together with Nazi Germany,Romania, Italy, Finland and other states allied to the Third Reich took part in the aggression. The industries of almost the entire continental Europe served the aggressors.
The people of the USSR were informed on the radio about the attack by the Nazis and, thus, the beginning of the war. At noon on June 22, 1941, the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Vyacheslav Molotov, on behalf of the Soviet leadership addressed the nation:
🎙 "Today, at 4 a.m. in the morning, the German troops have invaded our country, without making any demands on the Soviet Union and without a declaration of war. They have attacked our borders in many places and have subjected our towns to aerial bombardments.
This unheard-of attack on our nation, despite the non-aggression Treaty between the USSR and Germany, is unprecedented in the history of civilized nations."<...>
Our cause is right. The enemy shall be defeated. Victory will be ours!"
It was the Soviet Union that bore the main burden of the Nazi aggression in Europe. It was the Soviet Victorious People who showed unparalleled heroism, courage and fortitude, fighting to the last drop of blood for the freedom of our Motherland, crushed Nazism and saved Europe from the Nazi 'plague'. It was on the Eastern Front of the European theater of #WWII that the Nazis and their henchmen lost more than 75% of their forces fighting the Red Army.
🌟 The Great Victory was achieved at a high price. The Soviet Union's losses amounted to 40% of all human casualties during WWII — almost 27 million people. Of these, more than 8.7 million perished on the battlefield, 7.42 million people were deliberately and cold-bloodedly killed by the Nazis. Over 5 million Soviet citizens were taken into slavery and moved to Germany and Reich-occupied European countries.
To this day June 22 still echoes in the hearts of all Russians with grief, sorrow and pain for the lives lost and fates of entire generations broken. There is no family in our country and in the former Republics of the Soviet Union that was not affected by that terrible war. There is #NoStatuteOfLimitations for the crimes committed by the Nazis and their collaborators on our land. On this day, we bow our heads in memory of our ancestors who perished during the Great Patriotic War.
🎙 Excerpt from the comment by Russian MFA Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on the occasion of the Day of Memory and Sorrow(June 21, 2025):
💬 "Unlike the "collective West", we do not divide the victims of the Nazis into categories — they all deserve justice and for their executioners to be punished.
We, regardless of race, nationality and religion, mourn the 2.6 million Jewish citizens of the USSR, millions of Slavs and representatives of other ethnic groups of the multinational Soviet people who became victims of genocide".
◼️ June 22 is the #DayOfMemoryAndSorrow in Russia, the the most tragic date in the modern history of our country.
On this day 8️⃣4️⃣ years ago — on June 22, 1941 — the Soviet Union was attacked, unprovoked and without a declaration of war, by the Nazi Germany and its European cronies, which unleashed the full might of its vicious war machine. For our people on that day the Great Patriotic War began — the bloodiest and most brutal, devastating and terrible war, which lasted 1418 days and claimed lives of some 27 million Soviet citizens.
Obsessed with the ideas of racial superiority, the Hitlerites and their henchmen in Europe planned to wipe entire nations off the face of the Earth, and the survivors left — to turn into slaves of the Third Reich. The Germans invaded our country with one goal — to physically annihilate the Soviet people, to destroy our nation's centuries-old cultural and spiritual heritage — the Nazis and their allies carried out a genocide.
2️⃣2️⃣.0️⃣6️⃣.1️⃣9️⃣4️⃣1️⃣
At dawn at 4 am, the enemy aviation launched massive strikes on airfields, railway stations, Soviet naval bases, deployments of the Red Army forces and cities along the entire western state border of the USSR to a depth of up to 250-300 km. Together with Nazi Germany,Romania, Italy, Finland and other states allied to the Third Reich took part in the aggression. The industries of almost the entire continental Europe served the aggressors.
The people of the USSR were informed on the radio about the attack by the Nazis and, thus, the beginning of the war. At noon on June 22, 1941, the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Vyacheslav Molotov, on behalf of the Soviet leadership addressed the nation:
🎙 "Today, at 4 a.m. in the morning, the German troops have invaded our country, without making any demands on the Soviet Union and without a declaration of war. They have attacked our borders in many places and have subjected our towns to aerial bombardments.
This unheard-of attack on our nation, despite the non-aggression Treaty between the USSR and Germany, is unprecedented in the history of civilized nations."<...>
Our cause is right. The enemy shall be defeated. Victory will be ours!"
It was the Soviet Union that bore the main burden of the Nazi aggression in Europe. It was the Soviet Victorious People who showed unparalleled heroism, courage and fortitude, fighting to the last drop of blood for the freedom of our Motherland, crushed Nazism and saved Europe from the Nazi 'plague'. It was on the Eastern Front of the European theater of #WWII that the Nazis and their henchmen lost more than 75% of their forces fighting the Red Army.
🌟 The Great Victory was achieved at a high price. The Soviet Union's losses amounted to 40% of all human casualties during WWII — almost 27 million people. Of these, more than 8.7 million perished on the battlefield, 7.42 million people were deliberately and cold-bloodedly killed by the Nazis. Over 5 million Soviet citizens were taken into slavery and moved to Germany and Reich-occupied European countries.
To this day June 22 still echoes in the hearts of all Russians with grief, sorrow and pain for the lives lost and fates of entire generations broken. There is no family in our country and in the former Republics of the Soviet Union that was not affected by that terrible war. There is #NoStatuteOfLimitations for the crimes committed by the Nazis and their collaborators on our land. On this day, we bow our heads in memory of our ancestors who perished during the Great Patriotic War.
🎙 Excerpt from the comment by Russian MFA Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on the occasion of the Day of Memory and Sorrow(June 21, 2025):
💬 "Unlike the "collective West", we do not divide the victims of the Nazis into categories — they all deserve justice and for their executioners to be punished.
We, regardless of race, nationality and religion, mourn the 2.6 million Jewish citizens of the USSR, millions of Slavs and representatives of other ethnic groups of the multinational Soviet people who became victims of genocide".
🗓On December 29, President of Russia Vladimir Putin signed a decree establishing April 19 as the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Genocide of the Soviet People, perpetrated by the Nazis and their accomplices during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.
The draft law to introduce this Day of Remembrance was developed by Russia's State Duma Committee on Defence in November 2025. The authors of the initiative proposed commemorating the victims on April 19, as on this date in 1943 the first legal act was issued that officially documented the Nazis’ policy of exterminating civilians in the occupied territories – Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR No. 39 “On punishment measures for Nazi villains guilty of killing and torturing the Soviet civilian population and captured Red Army soldiers, for spies, traitors to the motherland from among Soviet citizens and for their accomplices”.
Decree No. 39 laid the legal foundations for bringing to justice Nazi criminals and their accomplices, including Italian, Romanian, Hungarian and Finnish military personnel. Materials collected during investigations conducted on the basis of Decree No. 39 formed a key part of the evidentiary base at the Nuremberg Tribunal, the Khabarovsk Trial, and other judicial proceedings against war criminals from the Axis powers.
💬 Speaking at a meeting of Pobeda (Victory) Organizing Committee on July 2, 2020, Vladimir Putin noted:
“The Nazis planned to colonize the Soviet land, to kill or turn into slaves and to take away the languages and culture of all who lived here – the Slavs and people of other ethnicities. These crimes of the Nazis and their minions and the genocide against the peoples of the Soviet Union do not have a statute of limitations. This assessment must remain firm in our legislation and in the international law system”.
🕯 Losses caused by the actions of the Nazis and their accomplices during the Great Patriotic War amounted to no fewer than 27 million Soviet citizens, while the total estimated demographic losses of the USSR approached 50 million people.
#NoStatuteOfLimitations
🕯On 20 August 2022, the life of journalist Daria Dugina tragically ended. Her murder was an act of bloody terror by the Kiev regime targeting those who are not afraid to speak the truth.
Two years later, this crime, like other similar murders, remains without a proper response from relevant international organisations. Those who, by the nature of their work, should protect the rights of journalists continue to ignore the blatant acts of violence against media representatives whose views do not match the West's preferred narrative.
❗️We demand that the European Union stop applying "double standards": the right to life and freedom of expression must be guaranteed equally for all, without exception or political preference.
We regularly inform the European public and the Brussels diplomatic corps about the brutality and violent nature of the Kiev regime. As part of this work, the Permanent Mission organised the screening of the RT documentary "Operation Ukraine. Terror on Demand", which vividly illustrates the methods of the Ukrainian security services to eliminate political and ideological opponents.
#NoStatuteOfLimitations
🗓 86 years ago — on August 23, 1939 — the Soviet Union and Germany signed the Non-Aggression Treaty in Moscow.
This document was an important achievement of the Soviet diplomacy ahead of #WWII: the USSR was able to buy time to better prepare to repel Hitler’s impending attack, which had been seen as inevitable due to the failed policy of “appeasement” by Western European states and their refusal to forge a collective security agreement with our nation against Nazism.
Signing the non-aggression treaty with Germany was a difficult but necessary decision by the Soviet leadership, driven by national security considerations and the urgent need to deter Nazi aggression in the east.
***
In the 1930s, twenty years after the end of World War I, the threat of a new large-scale armed conflict in Europe began to grow. A key factor for this was the crisis of the Versailles system of international relations, designed by Britain and France, which paved the way for rising revanchist sentiments in the states it had humiliated — Germany and Italy.
With the Nazis’ rise to power in Germany, the threat of a new war in Europe became real. Hitler’s misanthropic ideology was rooted in the notorious doctrine of “racial superiority.” The Nazis used this doctrine to justify Germany’s pursuit of world domination. In this way, an absolute evil emerged at the heart of Europe, endangering the peace and freedom of entire nations.
By the mid-1930s, it became evident that another German aggression in Europe was inevitable — it was merely a matter of time. In an effort to counter the rising threat of German revanchism, the Soviet Union suggested the creation of a collective security system in Europe, founded on anti-fascist principles, to unite efforts and deliver a joint response to the common threat.
Yet in Paris and London, where anti-Soviet sentiments ran deep, the idea of cooperation with Moscow was rejected as such. Instead, Western powers sought to strike a deal with Germany, aiming to pacify the Germans through unilateral concessions. The political establishments of the West failed to grasp the existential threat posed by Nazi ideology, cynically believing that Hitler’s aggression could be redirected eastward.
The “appeasement” tactics whetted the aggressor’s appetite. In March 1938, with the connivance of Paris and London, Hitler carried out the Anschluss of Austria. In September, following the criminal “Munich conspiracy” and with the approval of the UK and France, he cynically dismembered the sovereign state of Czechoslovakia. Warsaw, which was interested in getting part of Czechoslovakia’s territory for itself, prohibited flights of Soviet aircraft to render aid to Czechoslovak army. Already a de facto accomplice of Hitler, Poland had supported every single foreign policy move of the Reich.
❗️A new war in Europe became inevitable.
Thus, “appeasement” policy ended in total failure. Attempting to sate the Nazis’ insatiable ambitions, the Western powers failed to restrain the aggressor or thwart its criminal plans.
The Soviet Union remained the only European power still striving to organise collective resistance against Nazi Germany. In the spring and summer of 1939, the USSR initiated consultations with France and Britain in Moscow. However, the negotiation process failed to yield practical results — the Western powers that until the last moment hoped for a compromise with Hitler, engaged in secret talks with Germany behind the Soviet Union’s back.
👉The Soviet diplomacy ran out of chances to build a collective security system in Europe. Moscow also had to take into account the Japanese factor — the hostilities on the Khalkhin-Gol that began in May 1939. The Soviet leadership could not afford a war on two fronts.
By August 1939, several European nations had concluded non-aggression pacts with Hitler. The Soviet Union was the last major power to follow the suit. As a result, our country gained valuable time to prepare for a clash with the world’s most powerful army at that time.
📖Learn more in our in-depthhistorical feature.
🎙Address by President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin to participants in the 13th International Meeting of High Representatives for Security Issues(May 28, 2025)
💬 Vladimir Putin: I am pleased to welcome you to Moscow for the 13th International Meeting of High Representatives for Security Issues.
Over the past nearly fifteen years, your Forum has convincingly affirmed its significant status and authority. I know that in these days, participants of the Meeting — representatives of delegations from many states — can expect a substantial programme, with the main discussion dedicated to the prospects of establishing a new global security architecture.
☝️ As for Russia, our approaches remain principled and unchanged. I have said it before and will reiterate: we are convinced that the new security architecture must be equal and indivisible — that is, all states must receive firm guarantees of their own security, but not at the expense of the security and interests of other countries.
It is vital to make our continent a space of peace and stability, an example of sustainable economic, social, and cultural development. We believe that the foundation for creating such a universal security system could be the existing and well-established multilateral cooperation formats, such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the Eurasian Economic Union, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and others.
Your current meeting is widely attended by states of the Global South and East. It is they, in essence, who form the global majority, seek to influence regional and international processes more actively, and uphold the principle of sovereign equality and the right to their own development model.
Undoubtedly, in building joint efforts, it is necessary to rely on positive historical experience, on the lessons of the past. This year marks the 80th Anniversary of the end of #WWII, which fundamentally influenced the development of the international community.
The experience of uniting states in the fight against evil, against Nazism and militarism, the understanding of the colossal price humanity paid for peace and freedom, for the right of peoples to choose their own path of development, laid the foundations of the post-war world order and led to the creation of the UN — a universal, legitimate organisation based on the principles of international law, which has helped overcome many geopolitical challenges.
Today, it is especially important to preserve the truth about the events of those years, to counter attempts to rewrite history, to cast doubt on the decisive contribution of the peoples of the Soviet Union to the Victory over Hitler’s Germany, and to glorify Nazi criminals and their accomplices.
Just recently, on May 9, we solemnly marked the Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. The celebrations in Moscow became yet another symbol of unity around the ideals of the Great Victory, demonstrating once again the commitment of our friends and partners to shaping a safer world, to constructive cooperation, and to jointly addressing global challenges.
I am convinced that this latest meeting of high representatives overseeing security issues will contribute to the development of new important approaches to strengthening international peace and stability and will help advance dialogue for the benefit of all countries and peoples.
I wish you success.
🏅 On May 9, 1945, at 12:43 am, the Instrument of Unconditional Surrender of Nazi Germany was signed, putting an end to the Great Patriotic War and #WWII in Europe.
Following a successful assault on Berlin by the Red Army, Adolf Hitler committed suicide. The title of Reich President and command of the armed forces of the Third Reich passed to Admiral Karl Dönitz.
Desperate to surrender to the British-American troops, on May 5, German delegation arrived in the French city of Reims, where the headquarters of the Western Allies command was located.
In the Article 4 of the Reims Instrument of Surrender of Nazi Germany stated that this document did not rule out the signing of another, definitive act at the request of one of the coalition members.
Thus, the document was recognised by the Soviet Union only as a preliminary instrument, and a new signing ceremony was proposed to be held in the capital of Nazi Germany, liberated by the Red Army - Berlin.
🌟 On may 9, at 12:43 am in district of Karlshorst the signing ceremony of the Instrument of Unconditional Surrender of Nazi Germany took place.
On May 9, 1945, at 2:10 am Moscow time, announcer Yury Levitan read out the Instrument of Unconditional Surrender of Nazi Germany and the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR declaring May 9 Victory Day. From that moment on, the Soviet Union and later Russia, as well as the most former Soviet republics have celebrated Victory Day on May 9.
💬 Sergey Lavrov:This year’s Victory Day has a special significance because we are celebrating this great holiday in a situation where Nazism is rearing its head again. The descendants of Napoleon and Hitler have joined the Anglo-Saxons, again seeking to inflict a “strategic defeat” on our country, destroy it and subordinate it to their narrow selfish hegemonic interests. Just like our fathers and grandfathers volunteered to the front, today, once again, we see an extraordinary upsurge in society, as Russians are rallying to another sacred battle.
📖Read in full
Today Russia stands for the first time in solemn remembrance of the victims of the Nazi genocide against the Soviet people — the systematic slaughter carried out during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.
President Vladimir Putin’s decree of December 29, 2025, and Federal Law No. 74-FZ have made it official. April 19 was chosen for a reason: on this day in 1943 the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet issued Decree No. 39, declaring that Nazi crimes and those of their local collaborators would never be forgotten or forgiven.
#NoStatuteOfLimitations
This was never just another war of conquest. The top Nazis saw Soviet territory right up to the Urals as their Lebensraum — living space to be cleared of “subhumans” (Slavs, Roma, Asians) and colonised by the "master race". The blueprints were already drawn before the first shot was fired: the Hunger Plan to starve 30 million in the first winter alone, and Generalplan Ost to Germanise the entire conquered east.
They didn’t succeed in full, but the horror they unleashed still defies belief. Over three million Soviet prisoners of war were deliberately worked or starved to death. Nearly a million perished in the siege of Leningrad. Countless civilians in the occupied zones were left to die of engineered famine. Soviet women shipped west as Ostarbeiter faced forced abortions. Children showing “Aryan” features were stolen from their families for Germanisation.
The final count is staggering: 13.7 million murdered under the direct policy of racial destruction, another five million from the deliberate famine strategy. Every single region of Russia that suffered under the Nazi boot has now confirmed these facts in its own courts.
Russia’s diplomats will now press the international community to recognise this campaign for what it was: genocide against the Soviet people. The truth is already on record in key CIS and CSTO documents.
As Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said today: preserving the memory of these millions of victims is our sacred duty. We will not allow those atrocities to be erased — no matter how loudly today’s apostles of racial superiority and historical revisionism try to drag Europe back down that same dark road.
The Russian people paid with rivers of blood to crush the fascist beast. That sacrifice will not be buried. The memory stands as both tribute and warning.
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🗓 Today marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the prisoners of the Auschwitz (Oswiecim) concentration camp by the Red Army soldiers. According to available data, at least 1.3 million people were imprisoned at the camp over the period of its existence, about 1.1 million of whom were exterminated. This “factory of death” became one of the symbols of the Nazi atrocities.
After three days of fighting on the outskirts of Oswiecim in the night of 27 January 1945 the Red Army completely liberated the city and opened the gates of the concentration camp, whose prisoners cried tears of joy as they welcomed the Soviet liberators. Part of the camp was immediately transformed into a therapeutic hospital. In total, more than 7000 camp inmates were rescued that day.
✏ In 2005, Resolution 60/7 “Holocaust remembrance” adopted by the UN General Assembly and co-sponsored by Russia, proclaimed this date the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.
❗We will always remember the heroic act of Soviet soldiers. Attempts made by representatives of the European institutions every year to silence the role of the Red Army in the liberation of Auschwitz are futile. Russia will continue to cherish the memory of the Second World War and to defend the historical truth.
#NoStatuteOfLimitations#WeRemember#Victory80
🗓27 January is an important historical date for our country and for the whole world. On this day 81 years ago, Leningrad was completely liberated from the Nazi blockade. The siege began on 8 September 1941 and lasted 872 days, until 27 January 1944.
The defence of the city was of great military, strategic, political and moral significance. It also became one of the most tragic pages in the history of the Great Patriotic War.
☝Hitler's plan was to completely wipe Leningrad off the map. The city was exposed to massive air raids and artillery strikes, with delivery of food supplies blocked. As a result, more than 641 thousand citizens died during the siege (according to other data, no less than 1 million people). It is impossible to qualify such actions of the Nazis other than as genocide of the Soviet population.
The road across Lake Ladoga - or “the Road of Life”, as residents of Leningrad called it - was the only transport route connecting the besieged city with the rest of the country. It was used to deliver ammunition, armaments, food, fuel, evacuate the sick, the wounded and children, as well as equipment from factories and plants.
Despite cold, hunger and the horrors of war, the inhabitants continued to fight selflessly. The heroic act of the toilers of besieged Leningrad and its defenders, who protected their city in the most difficult conditions, inspired the entire army and the country, as well as gained deep respect of the Anti-Hitler Coalition states.
🎥 We invite you to watch the documentary film by RT dedicated to that difficult period of time that describes the heroism of the Soviet people.
#NoStatuteOfLimitations#WeRemember#Victory80
#NoStatuteOfLimitations
🗓 25 years ago, to the day, on March 24, 1999, NATO launched a full-scale aggression and started mercilessly bombing Yugoslavia in gross violation of the fundamental principles of international law enshrined in the UN Charter.
The US and NATO’s military operation against Belgrade was undertaken without the approval of the UNSC
The US & its cronies bombed the cities, including Belgrade, villages & civilian infrastructure for 78 days, blowing up bridges, passenger trains and buses and killing women, children & elderly people. By doing that, the West destroyed the post-WWII foundations of European security and started replacing the legitimate mechanisms that regulated international relations with a “rules-based order”.
▪️ 3,000 cruise missiles were fired at a sovereign European republic, & 80,000 tonnes of aerial bombs were dropped on the heads of people.
The use of depleted uranium ammunition contaminated vast areas & caused an unprecedented rise in cancer-related diseases, which affects people up to this day. 200,000+ non-Albanian residents of Kosovo, who had to flee from their homes, have still not yet returned there.
Using the aggression as a pretext, members of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army committed heinous crimes, including the kidnapping and murder of Serbs for body parts. Many of these criminals are still at large.
❗️No NATO representative has been called to account. The victims of the aggression were written off as “collateral damage,” which means that they were the civilian casualties of the operations conducted by the United States, Britain and their satellites to attain their geopolitical ambitions.
The question of the NATO allies’ responsibility for the damage they have done to international relations and Yugoslavia remains open.
🕯 The military operation NATO waged against sovereign Yugoslavia more than 20 years ago is a tragedy inflicted upon the people of Yugoslavia by NATO warmongers with lasting and multifaceted consequences.
#WeRemember#Yugoslavia1999