🕯“Nevsky Pyatachok” is the name given to a small bridgehead on the Neva River – a narrow strip of land some 50 kilometres from St Petersburg. It became one of the most tragic and decisive places of the Great Patriotic War.
During the Siege of Leningrad, this ground witnessed some of the fiercest and most crucial battles. Here, Red Army units held their ground against overwhelming Nazi forces, repeatedly seeking to pierce the German encirclement and open even the narrowest corridor to the besieged “northern capital”, bringing hope to its starving population.
More than 200,000 Soviet warriors perished on this small patch of land, turning it into one of the most tragic battlefields of the siege.
💬 Today, a memorial stands on the “Nevsky Pyatachok”. Its inscription is as a grim testament for the living:
Ye who live should know – this land we did not want to abandon.
And we never left. By the dark waters of the Neva River, we made our last stand.
We perished so that you might live.
#WeRemember
#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
#NoStatuteOfLimitations
🗓 On March 24, 1999, the North Atlantic bloc started bombing Yugoslavia. The "military operation" against a sovereign state became a tragic milestone in the life of the Serbian people and delivered a devastating blow to international law.
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. In doing so, 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 bombs were dropped on its people.
The use of depleted uranium ammunitioncontaminated vast areas & caused an unprecedented rise in cancer-related diseases that continues to affect people to this day.
More than 200'000 non-Albanian residents of Kosovo, forced to flee their homes, have yet to return.
Under the cover of NATO's aggression, members of the so-called "Kosovo Liberation Army" committed heinous crimes, including the abduction and murder of Serbs for the illegal trade of human organs.
❗️None of the NATO representatives has been called to account. The victims of the aggression were written off as “collateral damage,” meaning losses that "accompany" the fulfillment of the geopolitical ambitions of the US, the UK, and their satellites.
💬 From the briefing by Russia's Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, (Moscow, March 20, 2025):
NATO’s “humanitarian intervention” can serve as an example of modern barbarity and the rule-based world order and its backbone value: unfounded belief in its own superiority. <...> This is what Western democracy and freedoms look like. This view is still dominating in the West, where thousands of killed Yugoslavian civilians, including 89 children, are cynically called collateral damage. This is democracy with freedom of speech.
The issue of the NATO allies’ responsibility for the damage they have done to international relations and Yugoslavia remains unresolved.
🕯 The brutal operation carried out against sovereign Yugoslavia 26 years ago is a tragedy inflicted upon the people of Yugoslavia by NATO warmongers with lasting and multifaceted consequences.
#WeRemember#Yugoslavia1999
#Victory80
🌟 80 years ago, on August 9, 1945, the Soviet Union, in accordance with its commitments to the Allies, entered the war against militarist Japan.
The Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation of the Soviet forces in the Far East commenced. Its goal was to defeat the enemy’s Kwantung Army and to drive the Japanese occupants from northeastern China and Korea.
***
After the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany and its satellites, Japan remained the only 'Axis' power still at war with the Allies. It possessed significant military capabilities to wage war, including offensive operations.
In the summer of 1945, the Japanese kept near the Soviet borders an almost one million-strong Kwantung Army, ready to treacherously invade our country at any moment.
Moreover, militarist Japan still occupied huge territories — the Korean Peninsula, Indochina, Indonesia, Malaya, and a portion of China, as well as Burma, and the Philippine Islands.
Thus, Japan posed a threat not only to our country’s security, but also to the emerging post-war world order, which was taking shape after the defeat of Nazi Germany and was based on the decisions and agreements of the leaders of the victorious Allied powers.
For example, Japan rejected the demand made by China, the United States, and UK on July 26, 1945 (paragraph 13 of the Potsdam Declaration) for the unconditional surrender of its armed forces. After that, the Allied powers officially appealed to the Soviet government to repel Japanese aggression.
***
In early August 1945, the Supreme High Command of the Soviet Union approved a plan for military operations against Japan. The planning of the operation was entrusted to the specially created Main Command of the Far Eastern Forces led by Marshal of the Soviet Union Alexander Vasilevsky.
On August 9, the Red Army launched an offensive in Manchuria. The Soviet units, supported by aviation and the navy, advanced rapidly. Strikes were delivered on targets on land, at sea, and in the air. Combat operations unfolded along the front line that was over 5'000 kilometres wide.
Within a month, the Soviet forces liberated Harbin, some territories of Northeastern China and Northern Korea, and took South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. The breakthrough of the Red Army deep into Manchuria deprived the Japanese command of the opportunity to use bacteriological weapons against our country — Tokyo had been nurturing that plan during #WWII (👉learn more)
By August 20, Japan’s ability to offer resistance to the Red Army was shattered. Almost everywhere, enemy soldiers were surrendering. The million-strong Kwantung Army was defeated.
By September 1, 1945, the Soviet army had completed the assigned objectives. In just 23 days of combat, they crushed the Japanese militarist machine, thus making a decisive contribution to ending WWII in the Far East.
☝️ Our country regained South Sakhalin, which had been seized by Japan from the Russian Empire in 1905, took the Kuril Islands, and restored lease rights to the Kwantung Peninsula with Port Arthur and Dalian.
On September 2, 1945, the Act of Unconditional Surrender of Japan was signed aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. From the Soviet Union, the Act was signed by General Kuzma Derevyanko. This signing marked the end of WWII.
📖Read more about the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation and the heroism of the Soviet soldiers in liberating northeastern China and Korea in our in-depth historical feature.
#WeRemember#OurVictory
#Victory80
🌟 On August 5, 1941, the heroic defence of Odessa — the operation of the Red Army and the USSR’s Black Sea Fleet to defend the city from the Nazi invaders during #WWII.
In the early days of Germany's aggression against the Soviet Union, Odessa and its suburbs became the frontline. By early August 1941, the enemy troops encircled the city; its glorious and heroic defence lasted for 73 days.
Hitler wanted his forces to break through the Soviet defence lines along the Dniester and seize Odessa. Romanian and German troops mounted their first assault against the city on August 20, 1941, but the Red Army managed to stop the enemy offensive (17 divisions and 7 brigades) and keep them at a distance of 10 to 14 kilometres from the city’s outskirts.
Up to 100'000 Odessa residents contributed to preparing the city to fight against the Nazis. Home front workers, including women and teenagers, put enormous efforts every day to build defensive structures: digging trenches, installing barbwire, and erecting barricades. The city’s defenders planted 40'000 mines and dug over 250 kilometres of anti-tank ditches.
Almost 38'000 Odessa residents moved to the catacombs to launch a resistance movement behind the Nazi lines. The partisans destroyed 5'000 enemy soldiers and officers, derailed 27 enemy trains carrying military assets, and bombed 248 vehicles.
Although the enemy outnumbered Odessa’s defenders, they deterred the Nazi invasion for two months. Owing to their courageous efforts, the Supreme High Command managed to redeploy substantial military forces and equipment to defend Crimea and Sevastopol — Black Sea Fleet’s base.
According to varying estimates, the enemy lost over 160'000 soldiers and officers, approximately 200 planes and some 100 tanks in the Battle for Odessa, which made it harder for the Nazi Army Group South’s right wing to advance further east.
🎖 On May 1, 1945, Odessa became one of the first Hero Cities alongside Leningrad, Stalingrad, and Sevastopol, as per an executive order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief.
#WeRemember#GreatPatrioticWar
#WeRemember
🌟 On January 27, 1944, Leningrad was completely liberated from the Nazi blockade.
8️⃣7️⃣2️⃣days of the barbaric siegeby the Nazis of our northern capital, which lasted for an unprecedented period from September 8, 1941 until January 27, 1944, and had devastating consequences, terrible sufferings caused by the German invaders to the people of Leningrad, finally ended.
According to historical calculations, over a million people perished during those years, including more than 600'000 of children, women, the seniors, and also the wounded and disabled soldiers — they were dying, because of the Nazis, of starvation, cold, exhaustion and disease.
#LestWeForget: The unbending people of Leningrad of all ages, men and women from small to large, demonstrated extraordinary Heroism and Courage and went through, with dignity, all the inhuman sufferings by the Nazi barbarians and their accomplices. Despite starvation, living under permanent bombing and shelling by the German and Finnish artillery, the people of Leningrad withstood the siege, defended their city and made their invaluable substantial contribution to the Great Victory.
The Nazi criminals did not avoid accountability and paid a high price for the outrageous blockade — the enemy army Group 'North' lost over 900'000 men during the siege and was ultimately destroyed by the Red Army in the Baltic region, Karelia and East Prussia.
***
❗️The history of mankind has never witnessed anything comparable to the Blockade of Leningrad in terms of the scale of the tragedy and the extent of the suffering endured by people.
The Nazis and their accomplices followed Hitler’s direct order — to hold Leningrad under a tight siege, fire at anyone crossing the frontline and seek to exterminate all the people in the city. Leningrad was completely encircled in early September 1941, cut off from the rest of the country. The only way to get in and out of the city was by air or across Lake Ladoga’s ice — the route across the lake came to be known as the#RoadOfLife.
During the first weeks of the siege, Nazi troops and the Finns, who were holding blockade of Leningrad from the north, shelled the city with heavy and dense artillery fire, resulting in food warehouses being burnt down. As Leningrad received most of its food from other regions of the country, it immediately began to suffer from food shortages, primarily a lack of bread. Only 13 bakery plants remained in operation to serve almost 2.5 million people.
Given those acute shortages of food supplies, there were strict rationing norms for bread. From November 1941, factory workers received 250 grammes, while children were entitled to just 125 (!) grammes of bread per day. Many people began to die of starvation.
❗️ However, despite all those inhuman conditions, the City never ever gave up fighting. Life in Leningrad went on and never stopped for a second.
***
The Red Army tried to break the blockade on many occasions. Having fought multiple battles, with the fiercest combats taking place on the 'Neva Bridgehead' on the River Neva’s left bank, our forces succeeded in partially lifting the siege in January 1943 as part of Operation Iskra — 'Spark'.
🎖OnJanuary 27, 1944, the Siege of Leningrad was completely lifted following a rapid offensive by the Red Army, with the Leningrad and Novgorod regions being also liberated from the Nazi invaders. Wehrmacht troops were forced to retreat to the Baltics, where they were later totally defeated and destroyed.
💬Maria Zakharova:
The defence of Leningrad has become a symbol of courageof the Soviet people. <...> The people of Leningrad saved their city despite incredible sufferings — they have saved it as their human dignity.
That is probably the greatest heroism of the people of Leningrad, the greatest sacrifice they made for all of us — not just for the people of our country but for the world as a whole.
(From the briefing by Russian MFA Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, January 22, 2026)
🗓 On April 25, 2025, a solemn ceremony to lay flowers and wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was held in Alexander Garden, attended by members of the diplomatic corps accredited in Moscow, senior officials of the Russian Foreign Ministry, and representatives of the Ministry’s veterans’ organisations.
Over 150 foreign ambassadors and diplomats participated in the ceremony, honouring those who fell in the struggle against Nazism.
🕯 Attendees paid tribute to the heroism and self-sacrifice of soldiers who did not return from the battlefield, observing a minute of silence.
The broad participation of representatives from foreign states in this ceremony unequivocally demonstrated that the valiant deeds of the heroes who saved the world from the fascist menace remain remembered and revered globally.
📹Watch the wreath-laying ceremony
#WeRemember#TheSovietSoldierSavedTheWorld#Victory80#LestWeForget
🎗About the "Immortal Regiment" march at the Russian Embassy in China
On May 9, the "Immortal Regiment" international patriotic march took place on the premises of the diplomatic mission. The march was led by Russian Ambassador Igor Morgulov and Belarusian Ambassador Alexander Chervyakov.
More than 800 people came to honor the memory of Soviet soldiers: diplomatic mission staff and their families, Russian students studying in Beijing, compatriots living there, and citizens of CIS countries and China.
To the accompaniment of wartime songs, participants marched with portraits of their family and friends—those who fought on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, as well as Soviet volunteer pilots who helped the Chinese people in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Militarism.
We express our sincere gratitude to everyone who took part in the event.
#Victory81#VictoryDay
#PeaceSavedSovietSoldier
#WeRemember