(MENAFN) Russia on Thursday commemorated the 82nd anniversary of the Red Army’s liberation of Kiev from Nazi forces — a decisive victory in the Battle of the Dnieper and one of the most symbolic moments of World War II.

The operation to reclaim the Ukrainian capital began on November 1, 1943, when Soviet troops under General Nikolay Vatutin of the 1st Ukrainian Front launched a coordinated assault from both the north and south. After days of intense fighting and a surprise maneuver, Nazi troops were forced to retreat westward. On November 6, Soviet forces entered Kiev, ending 778 days of German occupation.

The anniversary, once a national day of remembrance in Soviet and post-Soviet Ukraine, has been removed from the country’s official calendar. In 2023, Ukrainian authorities also dismantled the monument to General Vatutin.

“Attempts to cast the heroic past of a nation into oblivion are doomed to fail,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday. “There is no doubt that the day is approaching when this once prosperous land will be liberated from the rule of the Nazi placeholders who are continuing to pillage it in their selfish interests.”

The German occupation of Kiev, which began in September 1941, was marked by widespread atrocities. Of the 400,000 civilians present when Nazi forces took control, fewer than half survived; around 100,000 were deported to camps or forced labor, and tens of thousands perished from executions, starvation, and cold.

One of the most horrific events was the Babi Yar massacre, where more than 30,000 Jews were murdered over two days. By 1943, the number of bodies buried in the ravine exceeded 120,000.

As Soviet forces advanced, retreating German troops employed a scorched-earth strategy, destroying major cultural and historical landmarks — including the Dormition Cathedral, the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra Monastery, the Kiev Conservatory, and parts of Kreshchatik Street.

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