In addition to his thanks to the millions of citizens who saved Russia and the world from fascism, Russian President Vladimir Putin counters the disgusting effort in the West to leave out Russia’s role in that victory by thanking those in the West who opened the “second front” in Europe, as well as the huge Chinese contribution in the war against Japan. His speech in full:
Veterans, guests, Comrade soldiers and sailors, sergeants and sergeant majors, midshipmen and warrant officers, Comrade officers, generals and admirals, I congratulate you on the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War!
Today, we are all united by the feelings of joy and grief, pride and gratitude, and admiration for the generation that crushed Nazism and won freedom and peace for all humanity at the cost of millions of lives. We faithfully preserve the memory of those historic, glorious events. As the heirs of the victors, today we celebrate Victory Day as the most important holiday for the country, which the entire nation, each family, each of us holds dear. Our fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers saved the Fatherland. And they bequeathed us to defend the Motherland, to stay united and firmly defend our national interests, our thousand-year history, culture and traditional values—everything that is dear to us, that is sacred to us.
We remember the lessons of World War II and will never agree with the distortion of those events or attempts to justify the murderers and slander the true victors. Our duty is to defend the honour of the Red Army soldiers and commanders, and the heroism of fighters of different ethnic backgrounds who will forever remain Russian soldiers in world history.
Russia has been and will continue to be an indestructible obstacle to Nazism, Russophobia and anti-Semitism, and will stand in the way of the violence perpetrated by the champions of these aggressive and destructive ideas. Truth and justice are on our side. The whole of Russia, our society and all people support the participants in the special military operation. We are proud of their courage and spirit, and their steely determination that has always brought us victory.
Friends, The Soviet Union bore the brunt of the enemy’s most savage and relentless assaults. Millions of people, once devoted solely to peaceful labour, took up arms and stood firm to the death on every hill, bridgehead, and defensive line. The outcome of the Second World War was determined by decisive victories in major battles of Moscow and Stalingrad, on the Kursk Bulge and the Dnieper River, by the courage of the defenders of Belarus, who were the first to face the invader, by staunch resistance at the Brest Fortress and in Mogilev, Odessa, Sevastopol, Murmansk, Tula and Smolensk, by the heroism of the residents of besieged Leningrad, by the bravery of all those who fought on the front lines, in partisan units, and in the underground resistance, as well as by the selfless efforts of those who evacuated plants and factories under enemy fire, and who worked on the home front, giving everything they had, working to the limits of their ability.
