Dear citizens of Russia! Dear veterans!
Comrade soldiers and sailors, sergeants and petty officers, midshipmen and warrant officers! Comrade officers, generals, and admirals! Fighters, commanders, frontline soldiers - heroes of the special military operation!
I congratulate you on Victory Day - our most important, truly national, sacred holiday!
We honor our fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers. They defended the homeland, crushed Nazism, liberated the peoples of Europe, and demonstrated unparalleled military and labor valor.
Today, we witness the distortion of truth about the Second World War. Such distortion obstructs those who rely on hypocrisy and lies to build their essentially colonial policies. They demolish memorials to true fighters against Nazism, glorify traitors and collaborators of the Hitlerites, and erase the memory of the heroism and nobility of the liberating soldiers, and the immense sacrifices they made for life.
Revanchism, historical revisionism, and attempts to justify today's followers of the Nazis are part of the common policy of Western elites, aiming to ignite new regional conflicts, sow interethnic and interreligious enmity, and to suppress sovereign, independent centers of global development.
We reject the claims of any state or alliance to exclusivity, knowing well where such ambitions lead. Russia will do everything to prevent a global collision, but we will not allow anyone to threaten us. Our strategic forces are always combat-ready.
The West might wish to forget the lessons of the Second World War, but we remember that the fate of humanity was decided in grand battles near Moscow and Leningrad, Rzhev, Stalingrad, Kursk, and Kharkov, near Minsk, Smolensk, and Kiev, and in the difficult, bloody battles from Murmansk to the Caucasus and Crimea.
In the first three long and arduous years of the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet Union, all the republics of the former Soviet Union, practically fought alone against the Nazis, while almost all of Europe supported the military might of the Wehrmacht.
In this regard, I emphasize: Russia has never underestimated the importance of the Second Front and the assistance of allies. We honor the courage of all warriors of the anti-Hitler coalition, participants of the Resistance, underground fighters, partisans, and the bravery of the Chinese people who fought for their independence against the aggression of militarist Japan. And we will always remember, never, never forget our common struggle and the inspiring traditions of alliance.
Dear friends!
Russia is currently going through a complex, pivotal period. The fate of the Motherland, its future, depends on each of us.
Today, on Victory Day, we realize this even more acutely and clearly, and we invariably align ourselves with the generation of winners - brave, noble, wise, who know how to cherish friendship and endure hardships, always confident in themselves and their country, sincerely and selflessly loving the Motherland.
We celebrate Victory Day amid the special military operation. All its participants - those on the front line, in the line of battle - are our heroes. We bow before your resilience and self-sacrifice, your dedication. All of Russia is with you!
Our veterans believe in you, worry about you. Their spiritual connection to your destinies and feats firmly links the generation of heroes of the Motherland.
Today, we bow our heads before the bright memory of all those whose lives were taken by the Great Patriotic War. Before the memory of sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, relatives, friends.
We bow our heads to the veterans of the Great Patriotic War who have passed away. Before the memory of the peaceful inhabitants who perished from barbaric shelling and terrorist attacks by neo-Nazis. Before our comrades-in-arms who fell in the fight against neo-Nazism, in the righteous struggle for Russia.
A minute of silence is announced.
(A minute of silence.)
Dear our veterans, comrades, friends!
9 of May is always a very emotional, poignant day. In every family, they honor their heroes, look into photographs, at dear, beloved faces, remember relatives, their stories about how they fought, how they worked.
Victory Day unites all generations. We move forward, relying on our centuries-old traditions, and are confident that together we will ensure a free, secure future for Russia, our united people.
Glory to the brave Armed Forces! For Russia! For Victory! Hooray!
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Sergey Karpukhin/POOL/TASS
Based on materials from the Press Service of the President of the Russian Federation