MOSCOW, June 22. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on the Day of Remembrance and Sorrow, the anniversary of the start of the Great Patriotic War.
The traditional ceremony to pay homage to the Soviet military who perished during the Great Patriotic War that Russia fought against Nazi Germany in 1941-1945 took place in the Alexander Garden.
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.