WW2 memories unite Russia and Belarus – Medvedev
Published: 22 June, 2008, 13:17
Dmitry Medvedev and Aleksandr Lukashenko united in Brest (AFP Photo / Vladimir Rodionov)
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Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has been to Belarus to commemorate the day on which Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. The city of Brest was the first to be attacked in 1941.
The Nazis planned to conquer the city’s fortress in eight hours, but in the end, it took them more than a month.
Medvedev and his Belarusian counterpart, Aleksandr Lukashenko, visited the Brest Hero Fortress memorial complex, laid a wreath at the Eternal Flame, and spoke to World War II veterans.
Medvedev said: “It’s very important that the memory of these events lives on. The thousands of people that have attended the memorial means that we not only remember those times, but those times also unite us.”
Lukashenko said: “It's felt we've always been together and will never part. We are politically and legally a union state that we defend together. I think we can do a lot.”
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