Donetsk, Apr 4 - DAN. DPR activists at a “round table” meeting on Tuesday discussed the Immortal Regiment procession to take place during the Victory Day celebrations in Donetsk. The format of the march and the number of participants are subject to change.
Head of the Young Republic organization Nikita Kiosev and DPR Operations Command deputy commander Eduard Basurin took part in the discussion.
“We’ve made changes to the concept of the Immortal Regiment action this year,” Kiosev said.
The Banner of Victory will be carried in the front of the column with heroes of the Soviet Union and Donbass and Afghan war veterans marching in the first ranks. Earlier, DPR heroes had not participated in Immortal Regiment marches. Any person can join at any leg of the parade, which is one of the proposed novelties.
The number of people taking part in the march increases every year. Last year, it brought together 30,000 people in Donetsk alone. “I’m confident that this year, the action will gather even more people on 9 May,” the Young Republic movement leader said. “As of now, some 1,000 volunteers are providing assistance in organizing (the action),” he said.
“For Donbass, it is not only a commemorative action; it shows to the rest of the Ukrainian population that we remember where the truth lies. We also show to Kiev that they are wrong to prohibit people to remember their history,” Orlov said.
The Immortal Regiment is a public procession of residents of different countries to honor the memory of their heroic relatives who fought the Nazi during the World War II. The participants carry the portraits of their forebears who fell in WWII battlefields and deceased WWII veterans. The action debuted in Tomsk in 2012 and later gained momentum in Russia and elsewhere. In 2016, it gathered 45 million people in Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia, Abkhazia, Transniestria, Germany, Norway and the USA. *jk
