The ceremony took place in the Alexander Garden. It was attended by veterans of combat operations, servicemen and graduates of military universities. Minister of Defence Andrei Belousov also laid a wreath at the Eternal Flame.
The ceremony participants honoured the memory of the defenders of the Fatherland with a minute of silence.
The event continued with a guard of honour squad and a military band marching past the national memorial of military glory.
The President also laid flowers at the Hero City obelisks and a memorial honouring the Cities of Military Glory.
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The Day of Memory and Sorrow commemorates the day when the Great Patriotic War began. On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union without declaring war.