MOSCOW, January 1. /TASS/. A Russian presidential decree enters into force on January 1 that ordains lifetime benefits for some categories of veterans of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) who live in Israel.

According to the directive, a monthly benefit to the tune of 1,000 rubles ($17.3) will be awarded to Israeli nationals, who used to live in the former Soviet Union and were veterans of the Great Patriotic War, or who were underage prisoners of concentration camps.

In addition, a monthly benefit of 500 rubles ($8.68) will be paid to Israeli citizens who hold the title of “Citizen of Besieged Leningrad,” widows and widowers of servicemen who died during the war with Finland, the Great Patriotic War, the war with Japan and former adult prisoners of concentration camps.

According to Israel’s Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, some 10,000 veterans of the Second World War live in the country. A total of 1.5 million Jews served in allied armies during WWII, one-third of them in the Red Army and partisan units on Nazi-occupied territory of the Soviet Union. Some 206,000 of them gave their lives in combat, while another 150 went on to become the Heroes of the USSR.