Sobyanin addressed veterans of Moscow on the day of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin addressed veterans and residents of the capital on Memorial Day.

On this day 85 years ago, Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union and "the holy war for freedom and independence of the Motherland began," the mayor wrote on his channel in Maks. At the front and in the rear, the people "showed massive heroism, courage and perseverance, fighting for Victory," Sobyanin noted. The pain of loss from the war, which claimed tens of millions of lives, has touched every family, he added.

On the Day of Remembrance and Mourning, "we remember those who fell in the battles against fascism," who gave their lives "for the sake of peace and happiness of future generations," the mayor wrote. He wished the veterans, their families and friends "good spirits and warmth of the heart."

The Russian Foreign Ministry said earlier on Monday that attempts to equalize the Third Reich and the Soviet Union for the outbreak of World War II were unacceptable and historically flawed. As the official representative of the department, Maria Zakharova, noted, the Red Army played a decisive role in the victory over Nazism and it was the USSR that liberated the peoples of Europe, who today are trying to identify the roles of the Soviet Union and Germany at the beginning of World War II.