Russia marks 80 years since breaking Nazi siege of Leningrad

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — The Russian city of St. Petersburg on Saturday marked the 80th anniversary of the end of a devastating World War II siege by Nazi forces with a series of memorial events attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Kremlin leader laid flowers at a monument to fallen Soviet defenders of the city, then called Leningrad, on the banks of the Neva River, and then at Piskarevskoye Cemetery, where hundreds of thousands of siege victims are buried.

On Saturday afternoon, Putin was joined by Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko in Gatchina, a town outside St. Petersburg that once housed camps for Soviet prisoners of war, for the unveiling of a statue commemorating civilians killed during the Nazi onslaught.

The Red Army broke the nearly two-and-a-half-year blockade on Jan 19, 1943, after fierce fighting. Estimates of the death toll vary, but historians agree that more than 1 million Leningrad residents perished from hunger, or air and artillery bombardments, during the siege.

Putin was born and raised in Leningrad, and his World War II veteran father suffered wounds while fighting for the city.

"In a number of European countries, Russophobia is promoted as state policy," Putin said on Saturday.

In his speech, Putin also lambasted the Baltic States over human rights. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — ruled from Moscow during the Cold War but now members of the European Union and NATO military alliance — have been among the strongest critics of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine.

Blockade survivor Irina Zimneva, 85, told The Associated Press that she is still haunted by memories of the tiny food rations distributed to residents during the deadly winter of 1941-42. Each of her family members received 125 grams of bread a day, and Zimneva's mother pleaded with her to be patient as she begged for more.

Dark days

Zimneva said her mother's love helped her through those dark days.

"I don't know what other way (I would have survived)," she said.

When Nazi soldiers encircled Leningrad on Sept 8, 1941, Zimneva had more than 40 relatives in the city, she said. Only 13 of them lived to see the breaking of the siege.

Before the anniversary commemorations, an open-air exhibition was set up in central St. Petersburg to remind residents of some of the most harrowing moments in the city's history.

For older residents, these are poignant reminders of a time when normal life had been suspended, with heavy bombardment largely destroying the city's public transit network, while death and disease spread through its streets.

World War II, in which the Soviet Union lost an estimated 27 million people, is a linchpin of Russia's national identity.

Agencies via Xinhua