Ambassador Nechaev said that Russia will preserve the memory of WWII soldiers of all nationalities.

Russia does not divide the victory in the Great Patriotic War (WWII) into nations or countries and honors the memory of fallen soldiers of all nationalities. On May 9, Russian Ambassador to Germany Sergey Nechaev told Izvestia about this during a solemn flower-laying ceremony in Treptow Park and Tiergarten in Berlin.

"Today we honor the memory of the fallen soldiers of all nations and nationalities who are here. More than 7,000 Soviet soldiers are buried here. Today we honor all those who ensured this victory," he stressed.

Nechaev expressed gratitude to the public and all those who "preserve the common memory."

"I would also like to thank the people who helped us organize all these [celebrations] today, as well as the people and organizations, including the War Graves Commission, who take care of our military graves," the ambassador said.

According to Nechaev, he was not advised by the German Foreign Ministry not to invite official representatives of Russia and Belarus to commemorative events on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.

"I have not read it [the document]. But I see that many people accept us, and public military graves are available to anyone who wants to and who has this culture of memory. So, to all those who did this, thank you very much for your solidarity with us, with the Soviet people. I also don't want to forget that we appreciate the contributions of our allies. We don't forget anyone who fought with us against Nazism. We know this contribution and appreciate it," concluded Nechaev.

Distant loved ones: how to search for relatives who disappeared during the Great Patriotic War

What you need to consider when working with archives and online databases

On April 16, Niels–Olaf Luders, a member of the Brandenburg Landtag and head of the Sarah Wagenknecht Union for Reason and Justice (BSW) faction, said that the German Foreign Ministry's call not to invite Russian representatives to commemorative events dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II was absolutely unacceptable.

On April 5, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, noted that the expulsion of Russia and Belarus from the celebrations on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the victory was a blatant insult.

On March 31, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called for a tough fight against the rewriting of history by the European Union (EU) countries. He stressed that in some EU states there is an equalization of criminals convicted by the Nuremberg Tribunal and those who liberated Europe from fascism.