NEW YORK CITY, May 9. /TASS/. An Immortal Regiment march was held in the United States online amid the coronavirus pandemic. Participants observed a minute of silence in remembrance of those killed during World War II.
The march started at 15:00 ET (22:00 Moscow time).
"Despite the distances and the difficult epidemic situation, we celebrate the Great Victory today and pay tribute to the memory of the unexampled valor of our ancestors," said Russia’s Charge d’Affaires in the United States Sergei Koshelev.
He condemned attempts to "rewrite history, to soil the memory of the liberator generation." "Our sacred duty is to preserve the truth about the Victory for future generations," he stressed. "Attempts to sneer at the heroic heritage of our ancestors are inadmissible and will be resolutely rebuffed."
Igor Kochan, President of the Russian Youth of America public organization, who was the march’s coordinator, noted that this year participants in the Immortal Regiment march could not hold the action offline. "But I would like to remind that the aim of this action <…> is to remember the heroes of one’s family," he said.
Diplomats from the Belarusian, Uzbek, Armenian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, and Turkmen embassies addressed participants in the march, WWII veterans and activists of public organizations from a number of US cities.
The Immortal Regiment movement commemorating those who fought or died during World War II was first launched in the city of Tyumen in West Siberia in 2007 and was initially called "Victors’ Parade." It acquired its current name in 2012 in Tomsk, and in 2013 it involved 120 cities. The movement officially became nationwide in 2015.
By now, the Immortal Regiment march has spread beyond Russia.