FAIRBANKS /United States/, May 12. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak and Fairbanks Mayor Jim Matherly have laid wreaths at the monument dedicated to heroes of the Alaska-Siberia (ALSIB) Lend-Lease air route.

During World War II, Fairbanks, Alaska, was part of the air route along which aircraft were transported from the United States to the Soviet Union under the Lend-Lease agreements. This year marks the 75th anniversary of that route. From 1942 to 1945, Soviet and US pilots ferried about 8,000 warplanes, which had a meaningful effect on the course of the fighting on the Soviet-German front, from that city. In August 2006, a monument dedicated to Lend-Lease and the Soviet-American brotherhood-in-arms during World War II was unveiled in Fairbanks.

The Lend-Lease program and the ALSIB air route went down in history as an outstanding example of the Soviet-US cooperation for the sake of the common goal of defeating Nazism.