Opinions & Interviews

Lukashenko: War veterans are our pillar and guide into the future

MINSK, 2 July (BelTA) - Belarusians owe life, freedom and independence to the war veterans who secured the victory in the Great Patriotic War and also to the home front workers, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said at a meeting in the run-up to Independence Day in Minsk on 2 July, BelTA has learned.

Addressing war veterans and home front workers, the head of state said: “We know that we owe you everything we have. Our life, freedom, independence. You are our pillar and guide into the future. It is on your shoulders our native land stood and reemerged.”

The president pointed out that many participants in the war were under eighteen when it began, but by their early twenties some of them were already commanding detachments, developing military operations and reviving towns and villages. “You have withstood. Thanks to you the republic became the bastion that held back the blow of fascist hordes and gave the vast Soviet country time to mobilize,” said Aleksandr Lukashenko. “The fact that our beloved Belarus, choking with blood, was dying but did not surrender in the battles was not in vain. Just as it was not in vain that the soldiers of General Russiyanov burned the Nazi tanks with Molotov cocktails near Ostroshitsky Gorodok, when the Brest Fortress was fighting selflessly and the soldiers of Colonel Kutepov did it near Mogilev,” the Belarusian leader said. “Who knows, maybe the Nazis lacked these tanks to win the main battle near Moscow. The indisputable fact is that the success of the brilliant Bagration operation was influenced by the resistance movement in Belarus, which was unprecedented in its scope,” he said.

The head of state noted that today, on the day that 78 years ago marked the beginning of the liberation of Belarus occupied by Nazi Germany, many people ask how the war veterans and their comrades-in-arms endured these difficulties and trials. “Could we have done that? A simple question with has no simple answer,” he said. “We, the older generation, look at our youth and think: God forbid they should go through this. At the same time, we believe they have your strength, courage, love for the Fatherland and willingness to defend it,” he said.

“We pledge to do everything so that your feat will live on for centuries, and every new generation of Belarusians will know that they have no right to forget the feat of their great ancestors. Happy Independence Day to you, dear war veterans, and we all bow low to you!” said the Belarusian leader.

print version

make home page

add to bookmarks