BEIJING (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th May, 2023) The Immortal Regiment marches timed to Victory Day commemorating the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in 1945 have taken place in Beijing, with about 700 people taking part in the event, a Sputnik correspondent reported on Sunday.
The heads and employees of the Russian embassy in Beijing, Russian nationals living in the Chinese capital, and about 100 Chinese residents attended the marches. The participants walked through the embassy carrying portraits of their relatives-veterans of World War II and honored the memory of the victims with a minute of silence.
"I am pleased that today the ancestors of our Chinese friends walked in our symbolic regiment together with our fathers and grandfathers. Both our fathers and fathers of our Chinese friends fought on different fronts, on different conditions, but they fought for the same thing: for us to be able to live, work, raise children, speak our native languages, preserve our traditions, our culture, be free and independent," Russian Ambassador to China Igor Morgulov said during the event.
The diplomat added that the Russian and Chinese peoples "know the price of this war too well."
The Immortal Regiment march is held annually to commemorate the millions of people who died fighting against Nazi Germany during World War II. It started as an initiative of journalists from the Russian city of Tomsk and was first held there on May 9, 2012. In 2013, the event was celebrated nationwide, and the tradition has since spread to other countries.
The marches across Russia have been canceled this year due to security reasons related to the ongoing special military operation in Ukraine.
