Residents of the Donetsk People’s Republic took part in a rally dedicated to Defender of the Fatherland Day on the morning of February 21. According to the correspondent of the DPR Official Website, they laid flowers at the monuments to the liberators of Donbass from the Nazis, buried in the city-center of Donetsk — Southern Front Military Council Member Lieutenant General Kuzma A. Gurov (1901-1943) and Commander of the 32nd Guards Tank Brigade Guard Colonel Franz A. Grinkevich (1905-1943).
“Take my most sincere congratulations on the upcoming Defender of the Fatherland Day. We must remember that we are the descendants of the glorious multinational people who defeated fascism and saved the whole civilized world from it. Our duty is not to let history be rewritten these days, not to forget about the glorious feats of our ancestors and the sacrifices they made. Owing to them, we had the opportunity to know what peacetime is, owing to them, many peoples lived and developed.
Today we must not forget that for the freedom to stand here and honor and glorify our veterans we should be grateful to our soldiers of the People’s Militia of the Donetsk People’s Republic, who continue the glorious work of their grandfathers and great-grandfathers and are fighting against fascism,” Chairman of the DPR People’s Council Vladimir Bidyovka said during the rally. He especially noted the surviving veterans of the Great Patriotic War, who are conveying the truth about those dreadful years to the younger generation these days.
Donetsk school students, who met veterans participating in the today’s rally, presented them with greeting cards.
As Hero of the DPR Akhra Avidzba emphasized at the rally, the Donetsk region repeatedly showed what it is made of in the years that were dreadful for the Fatherland.
“During the Great Patriotic War, during the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, when Donetsk residents sacrificed themselves to save the whole world. Here at the rally we can see our older brothers who showed their worth in Afghanistan. There were many such developments in which Donetsk residents showed themselves. And 2014 was no exception.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to our veterans. God willing, we, your grandchildren and great-grandchildren, will have time to bring you another Victory, the happy Victory for all of us. God willing, we will prove that your teaching has not been knocked out of us, though such attempts were have been ongoing for years,” he said.
Head of the Voroshilovsky District Council of Donetsk Vladislav Latyntsev said that in the run-up to one of the main holidays — Defender of the Fatherland Day — the tradition of coming together at the monuments to Kuzma Gurov and Franz Grinkevich remains unchanging for the memory of all those who gave their lives and shed blood, protecting their Fatherland, to be honoured.
“Our veterans are with us today! This year — the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War — was declared the Year of the Great Victory in Russia and in the Donetsk People’s Republic, and each veteran will be provided with individual care, we make every effort for you to stay with us for many, many years.
Here are combatants and heroes of this war. In the 21st century people were forced to take up arms when the threat of a “brown plague” threatened our land so as not to let the ideology of fascism step this way,” he emphasized.