Press releases

MINSK, 21 February (BelTA) – As of 1 January 2018, there were 9,300 veterans of the Great Patriotic War living in Belarus, including 5,700 disabled war veterans and war participants, BelTA learned from the Belarusian Labor and Social Security Ministry.

Minsk is currently home to two Heroes of the Soviet Union: Ivan Kustov, a participant of the Great Patriotic War, and Vasily Michurin, a participant of the Winter War.

As of early 2018 in Belarus there were 2,500 people honored with the USSR orders or medals for dedicated service and flawless military service during the war, and 155 more who worked at the air defense facilities, at the construction of fortified positions, front-line parts of railroads and highways, members of the crews of the vessels interned in the ports of other states at the start of the Great Patriotic War.

Belarus is home to 36 people who took part in demining after the liberation from the Nazis occupation of 1943-1945 and also 459 people who worked at the companies and organizations of Leningrad during the siege and were awarded the Medal "For the Defense of Leningrad" and the badge “To the Resident of Besieged Leningrad”.

In Belarus there are 654 people disabled from childhood as a result of wounds and injuries sustained during the Great Patriotic War. 650 people are family members of the fallen soldiers and partisans.

Some 16,600 people are former prisoners of the Nazi concentration camps, ghettos, prisons and other places of detention.

The local authorities conduct regular surveys to examine the living conditions of the veterans of the Great Patriotic War, the family members of those killed during the war years, elderly people, to identify their needs and provide the necessary support.

The local authorities also provide assistance to the veteran associations.