Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian soldiers fought together, 80 years ago, in the battle of Stalingrad, which Russia celebrates this Thursday, a symbol of patriotism defended by Vladimir Putin in the war against Ukraine.
The Russian leader will preside over the ceremony of the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory against Nazi German troops in Stalingrad, now Volgograd, on Thursday at a time when Russia has an ongoing war against Ukraine.
The Battle of Stalingrad, which ended with the surrender of Nazi forces on February 2, 1943, is considered one of the bloodiest in history, with nearly two million dead on both sides, according to the French agency AFP.
The battle turned the tide of the conflict in the Soviet Union, which had hitherto been demoralized by several crushing defeats.
Russia, which claims the heritage of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), glorifies the Battle of Stalingrad as the event that saved Europe from Nazism.
Eighty years later, Ukraine is an independent country and faces a war that began with the Russian invasion on February 24 last year, which cut Moscow off from the international community.
Belarus, which also gained independence with the collapse of the USSR in 1991, is Russia’s rare and great ally in the war against Ukraine.
Victory in the Battle of Stalingrad takes on additional symbolic significance as the first anniversary of the launch of the Russian operation in Ukraine approaches, according to AFP.
Russia has intensified its actions in Ukraine with the recent seizure of the Ukrainian town of Soledar, the first success for its forces in many months and after a series of setbacks in a war Moscow expected to last only a short time.
Launched to “demilitarize and denazify” Ukraine, the “special military operation,” as Moscow calls it, is the subject of a parallel drawn by the Russian president with the resistance against Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime.
“Forgetting the lessons of history leads to the repetition of terrible tragedies. The proof is in the crimes against civilians, in ethnic cleansing, in the punitive actions organized by neo-Nazis in Ukraine,” Putin said last Friday, on the occasion of the international day. Remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust.
In Volgograd, a city of a million people on the banks of the Volga River, celebrations of the battle 80 years ago meant two days off, Wednesday and Thursday.
A bust of Soviet leader Josef Stalin was unveiled in Volgograd on Wednesday, along with two military leaders famous for their role in the battle, Georgi Zhukov and Alexander Vasilievsky.
Since the fall of the USSR, the Russian authorities have had an ambivalent position towards Stalin: officially denounced for the state terrorism he orchestrated in the 1930s until his death in 1953, he is still buried in front of the Kremlin (seat of power). red square.
His name is still revered by many Russians who highlight his role in the USSR’s defeat of Nazi Germany.
The program of events this Thursday includes a military parade and a concert.
The Battle of Stalingrad, which began in July 1942, lasted 200 days and nights.
The city, transformed into a field of ruins, was the scene of devastating German air raids and extremely violent street fighting.
On February 2, 1943, the troops of German General Friedrich Paulus surrendered to the Red Army, which had surrounded them, in what was the first surrender of the Nazi army since the start of World War II (1939-1945).
Completely rebuilt by order of the Soviet authorities, Stalingrad was renamed Volgograd in 1961, eight years after Stalin’s death.
Since 2013, based on a decision by local authorities, the city has been renamed Stalingrad six times a year, including on February 2 and May 9, when Russia celebrates its victory over Nazi Germany.
Source: TSF
