Donetsk, May 14 – DAN. The international patriotic Immortal Regiment march joined 116 thousand people across the DPR on May 9, its organizer Larisa Trimbalyuk said at a press conference in DAN.
"Overall, 116 thousand people took part in the Immortal Regiment march, exceeding all our expectations. It shows that the Republic's residents support this public initiative and stay true to their heroic history."
The march was organized in all DPR towns with the exception of Dokuchayevsk, where the event was cancelled due to security concerns. All locals who wanted to commemorate the memory of Red Army soldiers who won the WWII, were transferred to Donetsk.
The most numerous march took place in Donetsk, where 72,000 people came to commemorate their relatives who defended their Motherland in World War II and later conflicts. French, German and Russian guests supported the move.
According to the event's organizers, fifteen hundred volunteers were engaged in two-month long preparations for the march.
Immortal Regiment is a public march on Victory Day in Russia and other countries with people carrying the photos of their relatives who fought in World War II.
It was first launched in Tomsk in 2012, and a year later was carried out in 120 towns. In 2014, residents of 500 towns in seven countries participated in the Immortal Regiment march. The move became an official event in Russia in 2015 gathering more than 500,000 people in Moscow alone.*ot