Russia marks 80 years since breaking the Nazi siege of Leningrad
ABC News
The Russian city of St. Petersburg has marked the 80th anniversary of the end of a nearly 900-day siege by Nazi forces
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia -- The Russian city of St. Petersburg on Saturday marked the 80th anniversary of the end of a devastating World War II siege by Nazi forces with a series of memorial events attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin and close allies.
The Kremlin leader laid flowers at a monument to fallen Soviet defenders of the city, then called Leningrad, on the banks of the Neva River, and then at Piskarevskoye Cemetery, where hundreds of thousands of siege victims are buried.
On Saturday afternoon, Putin was joined by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Gatchina, a town outside St. Petersburg that once housed camps for Soviet prisoners of war, for the unveiling of a statue commemorating civilians killed during the Nazi onslaught.
The Red Army broke the nearly two-and-a-half year blockade on Jan. 19, 1943, after fierce fighting. Estimates of the death toll vary, but historians agree that more than 1 million Leningrad residents perished from hunger, or air and artillery bombardments, during the siege.
Putin was born and raised in Leningrad, and his World War II veteran father suffered wounds while fighting for the city.
