Forwarded from Russian MFA 🇷🇺
#ArchivesSpeak
In the run-up to the 80th Anniversary of liberating Voronezh, the Russian Defence Ministry launched a historical section using archive documents from the files of the Defence Ministry’s Central Archive.
🗂 Voronezh: An Undefeated City-Front (in Russian)
On January 25, 1943, elements of the Red Army’s Voronezh Front launched an offensive and completely liberated Voronezh. In all, the battle for the city lasted 212 days. Red Army soldiers displayed bravery and heroism and held back up to 30 Axis divisions, including German, Romanian, Italian and Hungarian units, thus thwarting the enemy’s operational plans.
⚡️ Declassified documents include numerous reports highlighting the atrocities committed by the Nazis in the occupied areas of the Voronezh Region, as well as photo materials.
People in the occupied areas of Voronezh and the Voronezh Region experienced the horrors of hostilities and something even more terrifying: the German Nazis, Hungarian and Romanian fascists started enslaving the population of the occupied territories.
❌ They robbed, killed, enslaved and deported Soviet people with impunity and set up death camps. Numerous documents described the Nazis’ bloody atrocities.
📑 “On July 6, 1942, German Nazi thugs overran our village. A difficult, tortuous life full of privations and nightmarish mistreatment ensued for the local people… All residents of Rossosh were severely punished and beaten… The entire regime was based on beatings, mistreatment and torture... They burned down 25 homes, destroyed a secondary school and three primary schools, a village shop, a hospital and a maternity ward, a general shop, a post office, the village Soviet (Council) and a bathhouse.”
📄 “Teacher Komagorova was brutally raped by officers who later turned her over to their soldiers. The naked and battered woman was shot in the abdomen and left at the home of Moshonkina, who was not allowed to treat her. Later, Komagorova was sent to a camp in Karpenkovo, where she died after much suffering.”
In the run-up to the 80th Anniversary of liberating Voronezh, the Russian Defence Ministry launched a historical section using archive documents from the files of the Defence Ministry’s Central Archive.
🗂 Voronezh: An Undefeated City-Front (in Russian)
On January 25, 1943, elements of the Red Army’s Voronezh Front launched an offensive and completely liberated Voronezh. In all, the battle for the city lasted 212 days. Red Army soldiers displayed bravery and heroism and held back up to 30 Axis divisions, including German, Romanian, Italian and Hungarian units, thus thwarting the enemy’s operational plans.
⚡️ Declassified documents include numerous reports highlighting the atrocities committed by the Nazis in the occupied areas of the Voronezh Region, as well as photo materials.
People in the occupied areas of Voronezh and the Voronezh Region experienced the horrors of hostilities and something even more terrifying: the German Nazis, Hungarian and Romanian fascists started enslaving the population of the occupied territories.
❌ They robbed, killed, enslaved and deported Soviet people with impunity and set up death camps. Numerous documents described the Nazis’ bloody atrocities.
📑 “On July 6, 1942, German Nazi thugs overran our village. A difficult, tortuous life full of privations and nightmarish mistreatment ensued for the local people… All residents of Rossosh were severely punished and beaten… The entire regime was based on beatings, mistreatment and torture... They burned down 25 homes, destroyed a secondary school and three primary schools, a village shop, a hospital and a maternity ward, a general shop, a post office, the village Soviet (Council) and a bathhouse.”
📄 “Teacher Komagorova was brutally raped by officers who later turned her over to their soldiers. The naked and battered woman was shot in the abdomen and left at the home of Moshonkina, who was not allowed to treat her. Later, Komagorova was sent to a camp in Karpenkovo, where she died after much suffering.”
Forwarded from Russian MFA 🇷🇺
🇷🇺🇦🇴 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was received by President of #Angola João Lourenço.
📍 Luanda, Angola, 25 January
#RussiaAngola #RussiaAfrica
📍 Luanda, Angola, 25 January
#RussiaAngola #RussiaAfrica
Forwarded from Russian MFA 🇷🇺
🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s comment for the media following a meeting with President of the Republic of Angola Joao Lourenco
📍 Luanda, January 25, 2023
Read in full
💬 We discussed at length the international situation in the context of the West's course on using Ukraine to promote Nazism in theory and in practice and to wage a hybrid war against our country.
We shared our assessments that are based on our contacts with other countries and they confirmed the unprecedented pressure exerted by the Western countries on the developing economies of Asia, Africa and Latin America.
President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly pointed out that the West is using the same colonial methods it used before to exploit the developing continents and continues to use them in order to plunder other countries and to use resources of global importance for its own gain.
The West’s actions prove that it can trample over the values and the globalisation mechanisms that it created and promoted, including inviolability of property, fair competition, or the presumption of innocence at any time, and can betray its allies at any time as well. This can be seen in the practice of the fairly recent events in Afghanistan, Iraq and the 2011 Arab Spring.
📍 Luanda, January 25, 2023
Read in full
💬 We discussed at length the international situation in the context of the West's course on using Ukraine to promote Nazism in theory and in practice and to wage a hybrid war against our country.
We shared our assessments that are based on our contacts with other countries and they confirmed the unprecedented pressure exerted by the Western countries on the developing economies of Asia, Africa and Latin America.
President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly pointed out that the West is using the same colonial methods it used before to exploit the developing continents and continues to use them in order to plunder other countries and to use resources of global importance for its own gain.
The West’s actions prove that it can trample over the values and the globalisation mechanisms that it created and promoted, including inviolability of property, fair competition, or the presumption of innocence at any time, and can betray its allies at any time as well. This can be seen in the practice of the fairly recent events in Afghanistan, Iraq and the 2011 Arab Spring.
Forwarded from Russian MFA 🇷🇺
⚡️ On January 24-25, the 18th extraordinary session of the World Heritage Committee, which is responsible for the implementation of the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, took place at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.
A group of countries of the “collective West,” using direct support from the no longer objective UNESCO Secretariat, have pushed through a politically biased and scientifically unsubstantiated decision to inscribe the Historic Centre of the Port City of Odessa on the World Heritage List “in the face of threats of destruction.” The decision was prepared hastily and in violation of UNESCO’s high standards.
☝️ Thereby, the Western countries have again demonstrated their disregard for the rules of procedure at the World Heritage Committee and readiness to sacrifice the once high prestige of UNESCO and its basic 1972 Convention.
It is notable that two thirds of the Committee member states did not support the questionable move initiated by the Kiev regime’s handlers: the decision was taken by six out of 21 votes.
We do not question the cultural heritage and the glorious past of Odessa in the Russian state, and it is logical that it has been inscribed as a heritage site in the face of destruction. However, it should be clarified that the only threat to that city with a rich history comes from Ukraine’s nationalist regime, which has been systematically destroying monuments to the great founders and defenders of Odessa, namely, Empress Catherine II and her associates: Iosif Deribas, Platon Zubov, Francois-Paul Sainte de Wollant, Prince Alexander Potyomkin and Generalissimo Alexander Suvorov, who are integral to the centuries-old historical and architectural heritage of the city.
❗️ UNESCO should have separately condemned the deployment and use of military facilities and weapons in the Port City of Odessa. But nobody has uttered as much as a word about that, for some reason.
Read in full
A group of countries of the “collective West,” using direct support from the no longer objective UNESCO Secretariat, have pushed through a politically biased and scientifically unsubstantiated decision to inscribe the Historic Centre of the Port City of Odessa on the World Heritage List “in the face of threats of destruction.” The decision was prepared hastily and in violation of UNESCO’s high standards.
☝️ Thereby, the Western countries have again demonstrated their disregard for the rules of procedure at the World Heritage Committee and readiness to sacrifice the once high prestige of UNESCO and its basic 1972 Convention.
It is notable that two thirds of the Committee member states did not support the questionable move initiated by the Kiev regime’s handlers: the decision was taken by six out of 21 votes.
We do not question the cultural heritage and the glorious past of Odessa in the Russian state, and it is logical that it has been inscribed as a heritage site in the face of destruction. However, it should be clarified that the only threat to that city with a rich history comes from Ukraine’s nationalist regime, which has been systematically destroying monuments to the great founders and defenders of Odessa, namely, Empress Catherine II and her associates: Iosif Deribas, Platon Zubov, Francois-Paul Sainte de Wollant, Prince Alexander Potyomkin and Generalissimo Alexander Suvorov, who are integral to the centuries-old historical and architectural heritage of the city.
❗️ UNESCO should have separately condemned the deployment and use of military facilities and weapons in the Port City of Odessa. But nobody has uttered as much as a word about that, for some reason.
Read in full
Forwarded from Russian MFA 🇷🇺
#Opinion by Maria Zakharova
💬 Every year on January 27, the liberation of camp prisoners by the Red Army is marked at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum located on the site of the former Nazi death camp. Before 2021, the programme always included an address by the Russian Ambassador to Poland. But not anymore.
In January 2022, Russian diplomats were not invited to speak at the event for the first time. In May 2022, they closed the permanent exhibition in Block 14, which was prepared by the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War. They did so for a laughable (or lamentable?) reason: the expiration of operating agreements between the Polish and Russian museums. It was done covertly; nobody had notified the Russian party. Moreover, the Polish side avoided a direct dialogue with the Moscow-based museum and Russian diplomats for over two months.
Can you imagine anything more hypocritical? Here you are then. This year, the diplomats of the country successor of the Soviet Union, whose soldiers saved the world from the Nazi plague, have not been invited to the event at all.
Indeed, if you are set to cancel the historical truth and memory of the liberators that has become unacceptable, this should be done completely, so that no Russian faces at the event would stir up Germans’ and Poles’ conscience, if there is any.
I would like to tell those who will eagerly explain the situation with the ongoing conflict that problems did not begin at Auschwitz in 2022, and not even in 2014 but as far back as 2004.
That year, the museum’s authorities were displeased with the materials Russian experts prepared for the 60th anniversary of the camp’s liberation. They refused to budge, and the opening of the renewed exhibition was postponed until 2013. As usual, they had an ingenious reason: people from the regions that were incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1939-1941 were referred to as Soviet citizens (!).
No matter how hard our European non-partners may try to rewrite history, memory of the horrors of Nazism and the heroic Soviet liberators will not be erased. After our exhibition at Auschwitz was closed, the Victory Museum launched an online project, Auschwitz: The Truth. The Russian Military History Society, the Russian Historical Society, Russian museums, the Russian Foreign Ministry and its foreign offices regularly post historical materials online, including the truth about the liberation by the Red Army of Nazi camps in the countries that are so eagerly and ardently supporting the neo-Nazis in Ukraine now.
💬 Every year on January 27, the liberation of camp prisoners by the Red Army is marked at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum located on the site of the former Nazi death camp. Before 2021, the programme always included an address by the Russian Ambassador to Poland. But not anymore.
In January 2022, Russian diplomats were not invited to speak at the event for the first time. In May 2022, they closed the permanent exhibition in Block 14, which was prepared by the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War. They did so for a laughable (or lamentable?) reason: the expiration of operating agreements between the Polish and Russian museums. It was done covertly; nobody had notified the Russian party. Moreover, the Polish side avoided a direct dialogue with the Moscow-based museum and Russian diplomats for over two months.
Can you imagine anything more hypocritical? Here you are then. This year, the diplomats of the country successor of the Soviet Union, whose soldiers saved the world from the Nazi plague, have not been invited to the event at all.
Indeed, if you are set to cancel the historical truth and memory of the liberators that has become unacceptable, this should be done completely, so that no Russian faces at the event would stir up Germans’ and Poles’ conscience, if there is any.
I would like to tell those who will eagerly explain the situation with the ongoing conflict that problems did not begin at Auschwitz in 2022, and not even in 2014 but as far back as 2004.
That year, the museum’s authorities were displeased with the materials Russian experts prepared for the 60th anniversary of the camp’s liberation. They refused to budge, and the opening of the renewed exhibition was postponed until 2013. As usual, they had an ingenious reason: people from the regions that were incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1939-1941 were referred to as Soviet citizens (!).
No matter how hard our European non-partners may try to rewrite history, memory of the horrors of Nazism and the heroic Soviet liberators will not be erased. After our exhibition at Auschwitz was closed, the Victory Museum launched an online project, Auschwitz: The Truth. The Russian Military History Society, the Russian Historical Society, Russian museums, the Russian Foreign Ministry and its foreign offices regularly post historical materials online, including the truth about the liberation by the Red Army of Nazi camps in the countries that are so eagerly and ardently supporting the neo-Nazis in Ukraine now.
Forwarded from Russian MFA 🇷🇺
🇷🇺🇪🇷🛬 Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in Asmara, Eritrea - last leg of his African tour.
#RussiaEritrea #RussiaAfrica
#RussiaEritrea #RussiaAfrica
On January 27, 1945 Red Army liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau ☠️death camp.
Now this date is commemorated as #InternationalHolocaustRemembranceDay.
🕯In the Holocaust 6 mln Jews, many of them our compatriots, were killed by Nazis and their collaborators.
☝We’ll never let Nazism rise again.
Now this date is commemorated as #InternationalHolocaustRemembranceDay.
🕯In the Holocaust 6 mln Jews, many of them our compatriots, were killed by Nazis and their collaborators.
☝We’ll never let Nazism rise again.
Forwarded from Russian MFA 🇷🇺
✉️ President Vladimir Putin sent a message to the organisers and participants of events held as part of International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 78th anniversary of the liberation of prisoners at the Auschwitz-Birkenau (Oswiecim) concentration camp by the Red Army.
💬 Today, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we remember a dramatic moment of World War II when the Red Army liberated prisoners at the Auschwitz-Birkenau (Oswiecim) concentration camp. Of course, we mourn the millions of dead innocent people – Jews and people from other ethnic groups – who were shot, tortured, or died of hunger and illnesses.
It was primarily the Soviet nation that put an end to the barbaric Nazi plans in 1945 by standing up for the freedom and independence of its motherland, saving the Jewish people and other ethnic groups from total annihilation and enslavement.
We must clearly understand that any attempts to revise our country’s contribution to achieving the Great Victory de facto means justifying Nazi crimes and paves the way to reviving its deadly ideology. Horrible tragedies can happen again if we forget the lessons of history, as demonstrated by the crimes against civilians, ethnic cleansing and punitive operations carried out by neo-Nazis in Ukraine. It is this evil that our warriors are currently fighting courageously, shoulder to shoulder.
💬 Today, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we remember a dramatic moment of World War II when the Red Army liberated prisoners at the Auschwitz-Birkenau (Oswiecim) concentration camp. Of course, we mourn the millions of dead innocent people – Jews and people from other ethnic groups – who were shot, tortured, or died of hunger and illnesses.
It was primarily the Soviet nation that put an end to the barbaric Nazi plans in 1945 by standing up for the freedom and independence of its motherland, saving the Jewish people and other ethnic groups from total annihilation and enslavement.
We must clearly understand that any attempts to revise our country’s contribution to achieving the Great Victory de facto means justifying Nazi crimes and paves the way to reviving its deadly ideology. Horrible tragedies can happen again if we forget the lessons of history, as demonstrated by the crimes against civilians, ethnic cleansing and punitive operations carried out by neo-Nazis in Ukraine. It is this evil that our warriors are currently fighting courageously, shoulder to shoulder.
⭐79 years ago, on January 27, 1944, the city of #Leningrad was liberated by the #RedArmy from the Nazi siege.
The 872 days-long blockade was one of the longest in history, and the most devastating due to the number of casualties.
#WeRemember
The 872 days-long blockade was one of the longest in history, and the most devastating due to the number of casualties.
#WeRemember
#OTD in 1820 Russian expedition on sloops-of-war of the Russian Imperial Navy “Vostok” and “Mirny” commanded by Faddey Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev discovered Antarctica continent.
Forwarded from Russian MFA 🇷🇺
#Stalingrad80 #WeRemember
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Battle of Stalingrad. It is an outstanding example of courage, determination and readiness for self-sacrifice by all the peoples of the former USSR who thwarted the Nazis’ criminal and misanthropic plans and prevented a global catastrophe.
🌐 The feat of the Soviet soldiers evoked admiration around the world and enhanced our country’s international prestige. This is confirmed by the exhibition of documents from the Russian Foreign Policy Archive posted on the Foreign Ministry’s website.
📜 An excerpt from a cable by King George VI of Great Britain to Mikhail Kalinin, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the USSR, February 21, 1943:
“To mark the profound admiration felt by myself and the peoples of the British Empire, I have given commands for the preparation of a Sword of Honour, which it would give me pleasure to present to the city of Stalingrad.”
📜 From President Roosevelt’s message to Joseph Stalin, Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the USSR, February 5, 1943:
“The commanders and fighters of your armies at the front and the men and women who have supported them in factory and field have combined not only to cover with glory their country’s arms but to inspire by their example fresh determination among the United Nations to bend every energy to bring about the final defeat and unconditional surrender of the common enemy.”
👉 We invite you to read the entire set of the diplomatic correspondence which testifies to foreign officials’ admiration of the courage shown by the defenders of Stalingrad.
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Battle of Stalingrad. It is an outstanding example of courage, determination and readiness for self-sacrifice by all the peoples of the former USSR who thwarted the Nazis’ criminal and misanthropic plans and prevented a global catastrophe.
🌐 The feat of the Soviet soldiers evoked admiration around the world and enhanced our country’s international prestige. This is confirmed by the exhibition of documents from the Russian Foreign Policy Archive posted on the Foreign Ministry’s website.
📜 An excerpt from a cable by King George VI of Great Britain to Mikhail Kalinin, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the USSR, February 21, 1943:
“To mark the profound admiration felt by myself and the peoples of the British Empire, I have given commands for the preparation of a Sword of Honour, which it would give me pleasure to present to the city of Stalingrad.”
📜 From President Roosevelt’s message to Joseph Stalin, Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the USSR, February 5, 1943:
“The commanders and fighters of your armies at the front and the men and women who have supported them in factory and field have combined not only to cover with glory their country’s arms but to inspire by their example fresh determination among the United Nations to bend every energy to bring about the final defeat and unconditional surrender of the common enemy.”
👉 We invite you to read the entire set of the diplomatic correspondence which testifies to foreign officials’ admiration of the courage shown by the defenders of Stalingrad.
Forwarded from Russian MFA 🇷🇺
⚡️ Russian Foreign Ministry’s statement on another war crime by the Kiev regime and Western countries
On January 28, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, using US-made HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems and intelligence information provided by NATO countries, including satellite information, attacked a hospital in Novoaydar, Lugansk People’s Republic of the Russian Federation. Fourteen were killed. Another 24 received injuries of varying severity.
⚠️ The deliberate shelling of active civilian medical facilities and the targeted killing of civilians are grave war crimes committed by the Kiev regime and its Western masters.
The lack of reaction from the United States and other NATO countries to yet another monstrous trampling of international humanitarian law by Kiev once again reaffirms their direct involvement in the conflict and in the crimes committed.
☝️ These are clearly double standards. Western countries, together with Kiev, threw tantrums following what was a provocative staging of supposed Russian army crimes in Bucha and Irpen, when in fact these events never happened, and stubbornly prefer not to notice the blatant and barbaric actions of the Nazi Kiev regime, which kills civilians with American, British, French, and German weapons. They have fixed the idea of creating an illegal tribunal against Russia, but say nothing about the need to try the Ukrainian leadership and the military for their obvious everyday crimes. Such clumsy tactics hide their clear attempt to divert attention from their own responsibility for these acts. It is clear that Western countries and Kiev have neither a formal nor a moral right to the abovementioned absurd accusations against us.
❗️ All these criminal lawless acts performed by Kiev armed formations under the auspices of the West will not be left unpunished. They are being carefully noted. The organisers and performers will inevitably suffer punishment.
On January 28, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, using US-made HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems and intelligence information provided by NATO countries, including satellite information, attacked a hospital in Novoaydar, Lugansk People’s Republic of the Russian Federation. Fourteen were killed. Another 24 received injuries of varying severity.
⚠️ The deliberate shelling of active civilian medical facilities and the targeted killing of civilians are grave war crimes committed by the Kiev regime and its Western masters.
The lack of reaction from the United States and other NATO countries to yet another monstrous trampling of international humanitarian law by Kiev once again reaffirms their direct involvement in the conflict and in the crimes committed.
☝️ These are clearly double standards. Western countries, together with Kiev, threw tantrums following what was a provocative staging of supposed Russian army crimes in Bucha and Irpen, when in fact these events never happened, and stubbornly prefer not to notice the blatant and barbaric actions of the Nazi Kiev regime, which kills civilians with American, British, French, and German weapons. They have fixed the idea of creating an illegal tribunal against Russia, but say nothing about the need to try the Ukrainian leadership and the military for their obvious everyday crimes. Such clumsy tactics hide their clear attempt to divert attention from their own responsibility for these acts. It is clear that Western countries and Kiev have neither a formal nor a moral right to the abovementioned absurd accusations against us.
❗️ All these criminal lawless acts performed by Kiev armed formations under the auspices of the West will not be left unpunished. They are being carefully noted. The organisers and performers will inevitably suffer punishment.
Forwarded from Russian MFA 🇷🇺
📞🇷🇺🇮🇱🇵🇸 On January 28 and 29, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had telephone conversations with Foreign Minister of Israel Eli Cohen, and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the State of Palestine Riyad al-Maliki.
The Russian Foreign Minister expressed his condolences to his colleagues over the deaths and injuries of civilians as a result of the recent escalation.
❗️ FM Lavrov stressed that Moscow was seriously concerned about a new spiral of violence in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which could lead to a renewed full-fledged armed confrontation causing more casualties and destruction. The Minister called on his Israeli and Palestinian partners to show maximum responsibility and refrain from any actions that could provoke a further degradation of the situation.
There was a frank and involved exchange of views on the prospects of the situation in the Middle East with an emphasis on the Palestinian-Israeli settlement. Sergey Lavrov emphasised the urgent need to resume the efforts of the Quartet of international mediators in order to restart the negotiating process between Israel and Palestine as soon as possible on a universally recognised international legal basis.
🤝 The Ministers also discussed a number of topical issues on the bilateral agenda. They reaffirmed their willingness to develop mutually beneficial and multifaceted cooperation between the countries.
The Russian Foreign Minister expressed his condolences to his colleagues over the deaths and injuries of civilians as a result of the recent escalation.
❗️ FM Lavrov stressed that Moscow was seriously concerned about a new spiral of violence in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which could lead to a renewed full-fledged armed confrontation causing more casualties and destruction. The Minister called on his Israeli and Palestinian partners to show maximum responsibility and refrain from any actions that could provoke a further degradation of the situation.
There was a frank and involved exchange of views on the prospects of the situation in the Middle East with an emphasis on the Palestinian-Israeli settlement. Sergey Lavrov emphasised the urgent need to resume the efforts of the Quartet of international mediators in order to restart the negotiating process between Israel and Palestine as soon as possible on a universally recognised international legal basis.
🤝 The Ministers also discussed a number of topical issues on the bilateral agenda. They reaffirmed their willingness to develop mutually beneficial and multifaceted cooperation between the countries.