Lukashenko: The army parade in Minsk honors all the Soviet soldiers who freed the world from Nazism

MINSK – Although this year the army parade in Minsk is the only one in the post-Soviet space, it was organized in honor of all the Soviet soldiers, who liberated the world from the Nazi.

Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko made the statement during the army parade held on 9 May to mark the 75th anniversary of the Soviet people's victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, BelTA has learned.

“Even thoughts to betray the traditions that have been glorifying the history of the Great Deed of the victors for 75 years already are unthinkable for us,” the Belarusian head of state stressed.

“In this crazy world that has lost its reference points and guidelines there are people, who condemn us for choosing this place and time for organizing this holy celebration. I would like to tell them as a human being: don't rush to make conclusions or condemn us, the successors of the Victory, Belarusians. We just couldn't act differently, we didn't have a choice. And if we did, we would have done the same anyway, because eyes of the Soviet soldiers, who died for the sake of our freedom, look at us, eyes of the partisans and underground resistance fighters, who were tortured to death by Gestapo, eyes of the old people, women, and children of Khatyn. They wanted to live very much, but they died so that we could live.”

Aleksandr Lukashenko noted that modern Belarus is a monument to that dreadful war, to those, who died, who were tortured to death and burnt alive.

“Today we honor the deeds of our fathers and forefathers. Their road to victory was awash with tears of mothers, wives, and children, soaked in blood of the comrades that fell in battles and of civilians, scorched by the ashes of the villages burned down by the enemy. We bow low before the heroic deeds of Russians and Belarusians, Ukrainians and Jews, Tatars and Kazakhs, Tajiks and Uzbeks, Kyrgyz and Turkmen, Georgians, Armenians, Azerbaijanis and Moldavans, Latvians, Lithuanians, and Estonians – all the residents of the Soviet Union, underground resistance fighters of Europe, our allies – the USA, UK, and China. Their courage, bravery, and readiness to die for their country became a terrible weapon of vengeance against the Nazi and their satellites,” the Belarusian leader stated.

He stressed that history taught a lesson to followers of Nazism ideology, to conquerors with unbridled geopolitical ambitions. The meaning of the lesson is simple and just: people that defend their native country, their families and the future of their children are invincible.

“We are forever connected by ties of blood with the brotherly nations, together with whom our fathers and forefathers put a stop to the catastrophe of the 20th century,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

Aleksandr Lukashenko also emphasized that despite modern challenges the celebratory parade dedicated to Victory Day is not a show of force but a tribute to the memory of heroic history.