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Official channel for the Russian Embassy in the Republic of South Africa - Latest foreign policy, cultural, economic news. We take digital diplomacy seriously, share information on all things Russia-related
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🌟The Victory Relay dedicated to the 78th anniversary of the Great Patriotic War was held at the Russian school in Pretoria.

💬 Opening the event school director Alexander Rozhkov conveyed his congratulations to the guests and urged the students to revere and preserve the memory of the Great Victory and the feat of valour committed by their great-grandparents.

#Victory78 #WillNeverForget #WeRemember
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🌟 Happy #VictoryDay!

Today marks the 78th Anniversary of the Great Victory over Nazism.

#LestWeForget

#Victory78 #VDay78 #May9
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🕯️ On the occasion of the 78th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, the students of the Russian school in Pretoria took part in the online Immortal Regiment action.

🎖️To honour the memory of the Red Army soldiers the students share the stories of unprecedented feat of their great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers’ who fearlessly fought for the peace in the whole world.

#Victory78 #WillNeverForget
#ImmortalRegiment
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⚔️ Бои подо Ржевом шаг за шагом, день за днем приближали триумфальный исход Сталинградского сражения, прорыв блокады Ленинграда, освобождение Белоруссии, Украины, Прибалтики, тот самый окончательный, решительный перелом в ходе всей Второй мировой войны.

🕯️В память о подвиге советских бойцов южноафриканцы читают стихотворение А.Твардовского «Я убит подо Ржевом» (1946 г.)

#Victory78 #9May #Победа78 #ДеньПобеды #Vday #9Мая #VictoryDay
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🎙 Briefing by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (Moscow, May 10, 2023)

🔹
FM Sergey #Lavrov’s schedule
🔹 #SCO Foreign Ministers Council meeting
🔹 #UkraineCrisis
🔹 #VictoryDay #Victory78
🔹 Dismantling a monument of gratitude to the Red Army in Poland
🔹 The Baltic authorities’ attempts to prevent May 9 celebrations
🔹 Situation in Pakistan

And much more...

📚 Read in full

Talking points:

#Ukraine

Before May 9, Vladimir Zelensky cancelled Victory Day, which the majority of Ukrainian citizens hold sacred, and declared Europe Day instead. <...> By taking this decision, Vladimir Zelensky has cast a shadow over the feat accomplished by millions of Ukrainians and betrayed the memory of those who stood up to defend this land from a fascist Europe.

History develops in cycles. Eighty years after the rout of Nazism, we are again fighting this horror reborn in the West and Ukraine. This time, the enemy has tried to set against us a certain part of the population in the originally Russian areas by inculcating in them the idea of ethnic superiority. The memory of our fallen ancestors cannot allow us to let the neo-Nazis in Ukraine gain the upper hand. The declared goals are important as never before. As the Russian leadership said, they would be implemented.

#Pakistan

We are closely monitoring the situation in Pakistan following the May 9 arrest of Imran Khan, former prime minister and chairman of Pakistan’s largest opposition party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Pakistan Movement for Justice), on corruption charges. We are seriously concerned about media reports of violent attacks by protesters on police and miliary facilities in the country.

We call on the sides to settle their differences peacefully. We hope that the large-scale protests will be held without major clashes and that the situation will normalise soon.
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⭐️ Every year, on May 9, we mark the triumph of the Soviet people over Nazism in the #GreatPatrioticWar and #WWII. Victory Parades, pinnacle event of the celebrations, are held across the country, with the main parade taking place in Moscow. The sacred memory brings our nation together when we pay tribute to all those who saved the world from the Nazis.

The solemn and spectacular event comprises thousands of Russian servicemen marching through the Red Square and hundreds of military vehicle units rumbling through Moscow.

On November 7, 1941, during the Great Patriotic War, a military parade of historical significance was held on the Red Square. In time of the enemy's full-scale invasion it had a tremendous impact on morale throughout the Soviet Union. Soldiers who participated in the march went to the battle front the very next day to defend the Motherland from Nazi Germany.

The very first Victory Parade took place on June 24, 1945, in which the Soviet soldiers threw the Nazi banners at the feet of the Mausoleum. The next three parades in Moscow took place on jubilee years — 1965, 1985 and 1990. Since 1995 the landmark event has been held annually (even in 2020 during the most dire times of the COVID-19 pandemic).

On May 9, 2023, we gathered once again on the Red Square to honour the veterans and all those who perished during the Great Patriotic War saving our country and liberating Europe from the Nazis. We will keep the Memory alive and carry it through the years.

#NoOneIsForgotten #NothingIsForgotten
#Victory78 #VDay78 #May9
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📅 #OTD in 1887 recipient of the Military Order of St George III and IV class, twice Hero of the Soviet Union and a leader of the guerrilla movement, Sydor Kovpak was born.

Sydor Kovpak showed his talent and courage in World War I when he was fighting in the 186th Aslanduz infantry regiment. He went on reconnaissance missions, took enemy soldiers to gain information, and was part of the battle for Krasnik and the Brusilov offensive.

🎖 In the first days of the Great Patriotic War, Kovpak formed and led a guerrilla unit that was effective in fighting the enemy. In October 1941, his fighters managed to capture three tanks in a battle against an occupiers’ tank unit.

Sydor Kovpak often joked that he considered Hitler his main supplier of weapons and food because his unit regularly replenished its ammunition and food supplies during successful raids of the enemy’s home front.

Kovpak’s Carpathian raid against the enemy behind German lines in the summer of 1943 was one of the most famous guerrilla operations in history. The unit was fighting for more than 2,000 km – it eliminated or wounded 3,000 to 5,000 Nazis and collaborators, derailed 19 trains and did heavy damage to the enemy’s oil tanks.

☝️ The incapacitation of the railway junction in Ternopol was a major success. It considerably complicated the transfer of German troops to the Kursk area and affected the outcome of the Battle of Kursk.

#VictoryFaces #Victory78
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📅 #OTD in 1944, Soviet forces launched Operation Bagration, one of the largest and most successful military operations in history. In two months, they liberated the Belarusian SSR, part of the Lithuanian and Latvian SSRs and eastern Poland.

🔻 By the summer of 1944, the Red Army had succeeded in pushing German forces back from Leningrad, liberating Crimea and Ukraine and reaching the border with Romania. However, enemy forces continued to occupy the territory of Belarus. A salient controlled by the Wehrmacht’s Army Group Centre was established there. During the three-year occupation, Nazi troops had burned hundreds of local communities and killed over 2 million prisoners of war and civilians.

🔻 The Soviet forces simultaneously breached the defensive positions of the Wehrmacht’s Army Group Centre in six sectors, encircled and defeated the Vitebsk and Bobruisk formations, as well as the Orsha and Mogilyov formations. They launched several powerful strikes towards Minsk, entered Poland and approached the borders of East Prussia.

🔻 As a result of this operation, Soviet forces routed the Army Group Centre, one of the most powerful enemy formations. They crossed three large rivers, the Berezina, the Niemen and the Vistula, and seized vital bridgeheads on their western banks. They liberated Belarus, part of the Baltic republics, eastern Poland and opened the road to Berlin. The front was pushed back 550 to 600 km to the west.

🎖 Soviet soldiers displayed mass heroism and impressive fighting prowess, while liberating Belarus. Over 1,500 members of various Soviet ethnicities were made Heroes of the Soviet Union.

#Victory78 #WeRemember
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📅 #OTD in 1944, units of the Red Army’s 1st, 2nd and 3rd Belarusian fronts, supported by the 1st Baltic Front, liberated Minsk as part of Operation Bagration.

On June 28, 1941, Nazi forces seized the city. The Nazis destroyed nearly 80% of residential buildings, hastened to establish a ghetto. 400,000+ people perished by their hand in Minsk and its outskirts. The crimes committed there have but one word to describe them - genocide.

The retreating invaders took out their anger on the city and its resilient denizens: they blew up 23 major enterprises, wrecked a water conduit, blew up local sewers and the telephone network, destroyed 47 schools, as well as theatres, libraries, outpatient clinics and hospitals.

🔥 At 2:30 am on July 3 the occupiers felt the righteous anger of the Red Army. Eyewitnesses wrote that the Germans began to panic when the Soviet soldiers descended on the city. Partisans helped to liberate the city; they took part in the preparation of the operation plan and participated in street fighting.

The Soviet air force, which dominated the skies, hit the enemy hard,wreaking havoc on the retreating Nazis and hampering the arrival of their reserves

Highly effective and well-coordinated operations made it possible to expel the enemy from Minsk by the evening of July 3. To commemorate this event, Moscow ordered a 324-gun artillery salute.

❗️ It should be noted that Soviet forces continued to mop up the German formation, encircled to the east and southeast of Minsk, in the so-called Minsk pocket, until July 11. The Nazis failed to break out of the pocket. In all, 70,000 enemy soldiers were killed, and around 35,000 more, including 12 generals, were taken prisoner.

The main forces of the three Belarusian fronts pushed westward, while the others continued to mop up the encircled enemy formation near Minsk.

#Victory78
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📆 On August 23, 1942, the German Nazi invaders subjected Stalingrad to massive aerial bombardment for the first time. This unprecedentedly powerful and cruel attack destroyed almost half of the city but did not break the spirit of its heroic defenders.

Luftwaffe pilots made up to 2,000 sorties in a single day. The carpet-bombing was intended to erase the city from the face of the Earth, barbarically destroying the Palace of Sports, the city library, schools, universities and hundreds of residential buildings. Spilled oil burned on the surface of the Volga River.

✍️ Excerpt from the memoirs of Marshal of the Soviet Union Andrey Yeryomenko: “During the bombing, pillars of fire and smoke soared upwards in different places without interruption. Immense columns of flame rose to the skies near oil depots. Streams of burning oil and gasoline rushed into the Volga River. <...> The screech of bombs flying from above mixed with the roar of explosions, the grinding and clanging of collapsing buildings and the crackling of the raging inferno. The dying moaned; women and children wept hysterically, calling for help.”

🕯 By the evening, most of Stalingrad lay in ruins. From 40,000 to 90,000 people were killed and about 50,000 wounded in a single day.

Despite the scale of destruction, the Nazi invaders failed to break the resistance of the defenders of Stalingrad. The heroic defence of the city lasted for several months and went down in history as a symbol of the courage and unbending will of Soviet soldiers. The Battle of Stalingrad ended in February 1943 with the rout of the Wehrmacht’s elite forces and marked a turning point in the history of the Great Patriotic War.

#Victory78 #WeRemember
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📅 #OTD in 1944, Soviet forces launched an offensive to liberate Riga following artillery supression and air strikes. Thus marking the start of The Baltic Strategic Offensive Operation.

The Baltic region always played an important role in Nazi Germany’s plans, protecting East Prussia from the northeast. Control over this region allowed the German Navy (Kriegsmarine) to operate in the eastern part of the Baltic Sea and maintain contact with the Scandinavian countries, which supplied Nazis with strategic resources. In addition, the Germans received a significant amount of raw agricultural products and food from the occupied republics.

🌟 The key goal of the Red Army was to defeat the German forces in the region to complete the liberation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The operation lasted 71 days, with a combat front 1,000 kilometres long and 400 kilometres deep.

The liberation of the Baltic States was one of the major Allied strategic operations circa autumn 1944, with 12 armies operating on a 500-kilometre front, which was almost 3/4 of the Soviet frontline forces.

The struggle to liberate the Soviet republics was sustained and ferocious. The enemy had an advanced road network allowing them to maneuver forces and facilities, offering stubborn resistance to the Soviet troops and launching numerous counterattacks – but all in vain, eventually.

The success of this landmark strategic operation was largely due to close interaction between the ground forces, aviation and naval forces. The partisan movement played a major role in the victory as well.

🎖 During the Baltic operation, 112 Soviet soldiers and officers were awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union; three received the second Gold Star medal; over 332,000 were awarded orders and medals; 131 units and formations received the honorary titles Riga, Tallinn, Valga and others; and 481 received other state decorations.

#Victory78
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🗓 On October 9, Russia marks the Day of Victory over the Nazis in the Battle of the Caucasus, one of the longest and bloodiest series of operations during the Great Patriotic War.

A bridge between Europe and the Middle East, the strategic importance of the Caucasus region further increased after the discovery of vast oil reserves there. After Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic fell into the hands of German invaders, the Kuban and Transcaucasia became the main suppliers of grain and mineral resources for the USSR.

🥇 Despite the tremendous onslaught of the enemy during the initial phase of the Battle (July 25 - December 31, 1942), the Soviet soldiers and officers heroically held their defense. After launching a counteroffensive, the Red Army forced the Germans to retreat, recaptured territories previously occupied by the Nazi invaders, including North Ossetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Rostov Oblast, Stavropol Krai, and other regions.

During the 1943 offensive in the North Caucasus, the Red Army s inflicted enormous damage on the enemy: over 275,000 soldiers and officers were killed, more than 6,000 were taken prisoner, while 890 tanks, over 2,000 airplanes, 2,127 guns and over 7,000 vehicles were damaged or destroyed.

Hitler's plans to cut off the USSR from its major economic bases in the south of the country and most importantly, to seize the oil fields in the Caucasus, were thwarted. With the victory at Stalingrad and the Battle of the Caucasus the Soviet Union's triumphant march commenced, leading to the liberation of our Motherland from the Nazi invaders.

🎖 All the peoples of our vast country fought selflessly on the Caucasian front and their heroism was highly appreciated. More than 870,000 veterans of those military operations were decorated with the medal For the Defence of the Caucasus, established on January 25, 1943. The Hero of the Soviet Union title was conferred on 138 fighters.

#Victory78
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🌟 #OTD 80 years ago, the only successful mass uprising in a Nazi death camp commenced in Sobibor. Soviet officer Alexander Pechersky led this heroic fight for freedom.

Sobibor, which was created exclusively to exterminate Jews and prisoners of war, operated from May 15, 1942, to October 15, 1943.

Up to six echelons carrying up to 2,000 people each, including adults, the elderly and children, arrived at the camp every day. Brutal death expected all of them.

One of the most efficient human extermination systems developed by the Nazis was put in place at the camp. The gas chamber, which the prisoners called "the baths", could take up to 800 people.

🕯 Over the period of the camp’s existence, the Nazis brutally murdered up to 250,000 people, according to different data.

Of the 550 prisoners who were at the camp during the uprising, more than a hundred refused to take part in it, hoping that the Nazis would show them mercy. All of these prisoners were exterminated by the Nazi on the following day.

In the next few weeks after the escape, the Nazis staged a real hunt for the fugitives.

On hearing the news of the uprising in Sobibor, SS-Reichsfuehrer Heinrich Himmler became enraged and gave the order to liquidate the camp. The Nazis ploughed the ground on the camp site and planted cabbage with potatoes there, thus not only trying to hide their crimes but also destroy the memory of the prisoners’ heroic feat. But their efforts were in vain.

The history of Sobibor became part of the charges at the Nuremberg trials
and the stories told by witnesses and participants in the uprising formed the basis of a number of books and several feature films.

🏅 For many years, the liberated prisoners of Sobibor stayed in touch with their liberator, the leader and initiator of the uprising. In 2016, President of Russia Vladimir Putin issued an executive order awarding Alexander Pechersky the Order of Courage posthumously, which was handed to his granddaughter.

#Victory78 #Sobibor
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📅 On October 28, 1944, the Red Army successfully completed the East Carpathian Strategic Offensive Operation and liberated the entire territory of the Ukrainian SSR.

Soviet Ukraine was among the first regions to take the blow from the Wehrmacht on June 22, 1941. Immediately following the Nazi invasion, the partisan movement set up the headquarters which inflicted serious damage to the enemy.

During the years of the German occupation, the Nazis established a large number of concentration camps, prisons and ghettos on the territory of Ukraine. Several million people were killed by the invaders and their henchmen. Over two million Ukrainians were deported to serve as forced labourers in Germany. About 700 cities and 28,000 villages were destroyed, and more than 16,000 industrial enterprises were ruined.

🕯 The population of Ukraine suffered not only from Nazi invaders but also from the criminal activities of tens of thousands of local nationalists who chose to collaborate and serve the Reich, zealously carrying out ethnic cleansing and brutally murdering communists, Jews and civilians, including the elderly and children.

The forces that are currently in power in Ukraine hail the Nazi collaborators as “heroes” and “fighters for independence” . Some Western countries even go as far as to give them standing ovation in parliament.

The liberation of Ukraine took 680 days. It included 15 major offensive operations, involving nearly half of all personnel and equipment of the Soviet army. Over three million Soviet soldiers and officers lost their lives in the fight against the invaders.

🎖 Millions of Ukrainians fought the Nazis in the ranks of the Red Army. Their contribution to the Victory cannot be overestimated. Some 2.5 million Ukrainian soldiers received orders and medals, including 2021 people who were bestowed the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

❗️ The liberation of Ukraine from the Nazi invaders was a landmark event in the Great Patriotic War, opening the road to Berlin for the Red Army.

#Victory78
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📆 80 years ago, #OTD in 1943 the Tehran Conference codenamed “Eureka” kicked off, the first meeting of the “Big Three” leaders Joseph Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill during WW2.

📍 The conference was held in the Embassy of USSR in Persia.

☝️ The most notable outcome of the Conference was the agreement on opening a second front in western Europe against Nazi Germany in May 1944.

🤝 At the same time USSR would launch another major offensive on the Eastern Front that would divert German troops away from the Allied campaign in northern France.

❗️Joseph Stalin agreed in principle that the Soviet Union would declare war against Japan following an Allied victory over Germany.

👉 At Tehran, the three Allied leaders also discussed important issues of the post-war period concerning future Polish borders, fate of the Baltic republics, and formation of the United Nations organization.

#WW2 #WWII #WeRemember #Victory78 #UN78 #TehranConference
Today marks the 82th anniversary of the Soviet Moscow counteroffensive

⚔️ By Dec 1941, the Red Army had managed to stop the enemy & take the initiative in the battle. Soviet commanders discreetly concentrated strategic reserves closer to Moscow.

💡On the morning of Dec 5, the troops at the Kalinin Front (under the command of Colonel Gen Ivan Konev), the Western Front (Army Gen Georgy Zhukov), the Southwestern Front (Marshal Semyon Timoshenko) and the Bryansk Front (Colonel Gen Yakov Cherevichenko) launched a joint offensive in harsh winter conditions.

🕯Over 11 days, despite the enemy’s desperate resistance, the Red Army crushed the Army Group Centre and progressed 65-120 km along the contact line.

🌟 By early Jan of 1942, the Germans were thrown back 100-250 km from Moscow. The Central Russian Moscow, Tula & Ryazan regions were liberated.

❗️During the Moscow counter-offensive, Soviet troops debunked the myth about the Wehrmacht’s invincibility & finally buried Hitler's idea of a Blitzkrieg.

#Victory78
⭐️ #OTD in 1943, Operation #Ring commenced – the last part of the epic Battle of #Stalingrad.

The Red Army encircled the remaining Axis forces, making 24 #Nazi generals surrender.

⚔️ The deadliest battle in history resulted in a decisive Soviet victory.

#RussianHistory #WWII #Victory78