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Putin lays wreath by the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Remembrance Day

June 22, the day when Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union, is marked across Russia as Day of Remembrance and Sorrow

MOSCOW, June 22. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has laid a wreath by the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Kremlin Wall to pay homage to the Soviet military who perished during the Great Patriotic War that Russia fought against Nazi Germany in 1941-1945.

June 22, the day when Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union, is marked across Russia as Day of Remembrance and Sorrow. Also taking part in the ceremony were war veterans, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Cabinet ministers, the leadership of the presidential administration, parliamentarians from the upper and lower houses of the Russian parliament, top military leadership, representatives of the main confessions and cadets.

Soldiers from the Guard of Honor positioned the wreath with a tricolor ribbon the signature on which reads "To the Unknown Soldier from the president of the Russian Federation".

Putin arranged the ribbons and bowed in memory of the war victims. Then, other participants in the ceremony also put flowers by the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

The remembrance event continued with a military band playing a march. At the end of the ceremony, Putin laid flowers on the Alley of Hero Cities.

Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union in the small hours of June 22, 1941 without a declaration of war. Thousands of Red Army military and civilians were killed on the very first day of the war, and a total of 1,200 planes, tanks and artillery weapons were destroyed.

The remains of an unknown Soviet soldier were relocated to the Kremlin Wall from a mass grave outside Moscow in 1966. A memorial was opened there the following year, its key element being the Eternal Flame. The Guard of Honor at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was deployed in 1997.