Press Release, 21.06.2026

Photo: Participants in the memorial ceremony in Moscow / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

Late in the evening of 21 June, on the 85th anniversary of the start of the Great Patriotic War (the name by which WW2 is known in Russia in its dimension on Soviet territory), Yabloko leaders and party activists held a memorial ceremony at the monument to the civilians of the Zamoskvorechye district of Moscow who volunteered to defend the city in 1941 and of whom the great majority were killed or taken prisoner in the first months of the war, but who managed to help halt the Nazi Germany’s assault on the Soviet capital. The monument is located on Novokuznetskaya Street in Moscow. Participants lit candles in memory of the victims and heroes of the Great Patriotic War.

This monument stands close to the Yabloko’s Moscow office. It serves as a daily reminder that victory was forged not only by professional soldiers but also by ordinary Muscovites: workers, engineers, and students who rose to defend the city, Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov said in brief remarks before the ceremony.

Also taking part in the candle-lighting were Federal Political Committee member Ivan Bolshakov, Yabloko Federal Bureau member Vladimir Dorokhov, Chairman of the party’s Moscow regional branch Kirill Goncharov, and members of the Moscow Yabloko Bureau and activists of Moscow Yabloko.

Photo: Candle-lighting at the memorial on Novokuznetskaya. Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

“Many years may pass and much may change around us, however, this pain and this memory remain with us. Today we feel with particular acuity the value of peace, the value of home, and the value of life. It is our duty to restore the force of the words ‘never again’ and ‘the main thing is that there should be no war’. Tonight we asked forgiveness for our failure to preserve the peace for which they gave their lives in the struggle against fascism. Every day we shall fight to ensure that a ceasefire agreement is reached and that people cease to die,” Nikolai Rybakov said after the ceremony.

Every candle lit tonight at the monument on Novokuznetskaya street is a tribute to the millions of lives shattered by war, a feat of courage that cannot be measured in words, and the price paid by generation after generation in the name of life for those who came after, Moscow Yabloko emphasises.