Фото: facebook.com/ukinbelarus
Representatives of the diplomatic missions of the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Moldova, Germany, and the European Union in Belarus laid flowers at the “Memory” memorial on Dzyarzhynskaha Avenue in Minsk to honor those killed during World War II. The EU Delegation to Belarus reported this.
The memorial marks the site where, on June 28, 1941, 34 soldiers fought against German forces. Twenty-four of them remain unidentified. On May 8, 1945, the act of Germany’s unconditional surrender was signed, bringing World War II in Europe to an end.
“We remember and honor all those who helped bring Victory in Europe Day closer,” the British Embassy stated.
The German Embassy noted in its statement that people living in the territory of present-day Belarus suffered especially heavily during Germany’s war of extermination and the occupation period.
“While May 8 was observed in East Germany from 1950 to 1967 as a public holiday called the ‘Day of Liberation,’ attitudes toward this date in West Germany remained ambiguous for a long time. Broad recognition only came after a speech by then Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker in 1985 on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the end of World War II, in which he called May 8 a ‘Day of Liberation from the inhuman system of National Socialist tyranny,’” the diplomatic mission said.
“These words were recalled by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in his speech to the German Bundestag on May 8, 2025, marking the 80th anniversary of liberation from National Socialism and the end of World War II: ‘May 8 as a day of liberation became the core of our all-German identity. However, today we do not meet May 8 with calm certainty. Because we feel: freedom is not the grand finale of history. Freedom is not guaranteed forever. Therefore, today we no longer have to ask ourselves whether May 8 became liberation for us. The answer to that question has been given, and it remains true. But we must ask ourselves how we can remain free,’” the embassy added.