70th anniversary of the Great Victory

BREST, 22 June (BelTA) – A ceremony has been held in the Brest Hero Fortress Memorial to mark the 74^th anniversary of the start of the Great Patriotic War, BelTA informs.

The ceremony was traditionally held at 4am. Attending it were Brest residents and numerous guests of the city that came to mark Remembrance Day of Victims of the Great Patriotic War. According to the preliminary data, the Brest Fortress gathered about 12,000 people.

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia timed his visit to Belarus to this important date. The Patriarch led the lity for the killed soldiers in St. Nikolas Garison Church of the fortress and took part in the ceremony to mark the start of the war.

The ceremony included music, song and poem performance, a release of white balloons and pigeons into the sky. Border guards floated wreaths with candles lit from the Eternal Flame into the water. Wreaths to the Eternal Flame of the Brest Hero Fortress Memorial were placed by Brest Oblast Governor Anatoly Lis and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.

Talking to the participants of the ceremony Anatoly Lis noted that the memory of the war events is truly national and has no borders. Thousands of people that visit the Brest Fortress to pay tribute to the perished heroes testify to the fact. Anatoly Lis also stressed the importance of the visit of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia to Belarus on this day.

“Your visit to Brest Oblast is of great importance. It promotes unifying of people, fills the memory of the Great Patriotic War with more moral sense. Today, analyzing the lessons of that war, we make the main conclusion: it is essential to exclude the war as a means of conflict resolution,” the Governor said.

The Governor thanked the war veterans, wished them health and long lives. “I wish everyone a peaceful sky over their heads. Let the Brest Fortress be a place of memory about heroism and glory,” the head of Brest Fortress said.

After the ceremony Anatoly Lis and Patriarch Kirill talked to veterans. Then the Patriarch visited the museum of the Brest Fortress.