Russian Embassy in Albania

#Victory81 🌟 On April 11, 1944, during the Crimean offensive operation, Soviet forces liberated #Kerch from Nazi occupiers. Kerch was among the first cities to endure assaults from Hitler’s army at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. It found itself repeatedly on the front line, with the battlefront cutting through its very streets. Moreover, the city fell under enemy occupation twice. Initially captured in November 1941, Kerch was liberated barely a month later in December, following the Kerch–Feodosia amphibious landing operation. In the spring of 1942, the enemy amassed significant forces on the Kerch Peninsula and launched a renewed offensive. Despite the valiant resistance by the defenders, the city once again came under fascist control, remaining occupied for 320 days. During that period, approximately 15,000 civilians lost their lives, and over 14,000 individuals were forcibly deported to Germany for slave labour. 🕯#NoStatuteOfLimitations: The Bagerovo Ditch near Kerch gained tragic notoriety – a site of mass executions. Towards the end of 1941, around 7,000 people were executed and tortured there, including 245 schoolchildren. The Germans surreptitiously removed the children from the city and poisoned them with potassium cyanide. The Nazi occupiers obliterated every factory, burned bridges and vessels, destroyed parks, and decimated the city’s infrastructure. Kerch was almost completely erased from the map. One of the war’s most heroic episodes was the defence of the Adzhimushkay quarry. Thousands of civilians – elderly people, women, and children – sought refuge within the underground passages. The enemy attempted to exterminate them by sealing the entrances and using explosives and toxic substances. Nearly all the defenders perished, yet they continued to resist to the very end, rendering the quarry a symbol of unyielding courage and resilience. ⚔️ On the night of November 1, 1943, the Kerch-Eltigen amphibious landing operation commenced. Soviet forces established a bridgehead north of the city, marking a crucial phase in liberating the Kerch Strait and the entire Crimea. In the spring of 1944, this success was solidified during the Crimean offensive operation, culminating in the expulsion of the occupiers from the peninsula. One of Kerch’s principal symbols became the Obelisk of Glory on Mount Mithridat, unveiled on August 8, 1944 – the first monument in the USSR dedicated to the Great Patriotic War. 🎖 For the defence and liberation of the city, 153 individuals were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and 21 military units and formations received the honorary designation “Kerch.” On September 14, 1973, Kerch was awarded the title #HeroCity.

#NoStatuteOfLimitations 🕯 September 29 marks 84 years since the beginning of the mass executions of the Jewish population by the Nazis on the outskirts of occupied Kiev, in the ravine of #BabiYar. On that tragic day, Jews were gathered and led to the edge of the ravine. Many, until the very last moment, had no idea they were about to be killed. Others understood what was happening — they embraced, said their goodbyes and prayed. This monstrous crime, a bloodbath, claimed the lives of 33’771 people, among them many women, children and the elderly. In total, between 1941 and 1943, over 120’000 people of various nationalities were executed at Babi Yar. Among the victims were Jews, Roma, Poles, as well as Soviet prisoners of war, concentration camp victims, clergy, members of the underground resistance and party activists. The mass executions continued until the city was liberated by the Red Army. ▪️Babi Yar is the most infamous Holocaust site in Ukraine, standing in the same horrific line as Khatyn, Treblinka and Auschwitz. During the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet leadership at various points informed the international community on the horrific crimes and atrocities committed by the Nazi invaders, including the Holocaust and the mass murder of Jews at Babi Yar and other death camps. The responsibility for the mass killings lay with Sonderkommando 4a, part of Einsatzgruppe C. Upon retreating from Kiev, the Nazis tried to erase the evidence of their crimes: they exhumed and burned tens of thousands of bodies. Later, a few survivors of the massacre testified at the Nuremberg Trials about the Nazi atrocities. Paul Blobel, who oversaw the executions at Babi Yar, was sentenced to death and hanged. ❗️Ukrainian nationalists serving in auxiliary police forces took an active part in the bloodshed and were known for their cruelty towards the civilian population. 💬 Mikhail Sidko, one of the few survivors of Babi Yar, who was just six years old at the time: Many, realising what awaited them, went mad right there. They started screaming and were immediately shot. Their bodies were dragged into the ravine. The mass extermination of civilians at Babi Yar is one of the darkest chapters of the Great Patriotic War and World War II. This monstrous crime stands as an eternal reminder of the absolute inadmissibility of any form of neo-Nazism. #WeRemember