The opening of a memorial complex

The pain and grief experienced during the war became a true trauma for the next generations of Belarusians, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko said in a ceremony to unveil a memorial complex in memory of the burned villages of Mogilev Oblast, which is located in the village of Borki, Kirovsk District on 20 June.

The head of state noted that this year marks the holy holiday for the country - the anniversary of the Great Victory. “It gave us 75 years of peaceful life. The life for which Belarus paid too high a price,” the Belarusian leader stressed.

He called the genocide of the civilian population as the most awful  consequence of that war. “The pain, grief and feeling of irreparable loss experienced by our people have become a true trauma for the next generations of Belarusians," the president said.

“Reading the memories of eyewitnesses, looking at the monstrous photos and watching photo chronicles of the crimes committed by Hitler's invaders, we can never understand how soldiers who had a mother, who themselves knew the happiness of fatherhood, were able to kill unarmed people. How did not they see at least some reminder of their families in our old people, women and children. They murdered in cold blood, methodically, killing babies with bayonets to save ammunition…,”  the head of state said.

Aleksandr Lukashenko noted that it sounds atrociously and scary. “But we must not look for softer words when remembering the atrocities that took place on the Belarusian soil during the Great Patriotic War. We cannot. Because forgotten emotions are the first step to the oblivion of the events that caused these emotions,” he said.

The Belarus president observed a minute of silence to pay tribute to the residents of the village of Borki and the surrounding villages killed during the war. Aleksandr Lukashenko laid flowers at the main sculptural composition of the memorial, and talked to the war veterans and participants of the event. He also lit a memorial candle in front of the Icon of the Mother of God in the chapel.