Germany donates Russia 12m euros

The 12m-euro donation will be used for modernisation of hospitals for war veterans and the establishment of the German-Russian Centre.

Germany, at the 75th anniversary of the end of the siege of Leningrad, present-day St Petersburg, has donated 12m euros to Russia, which will be used on several projects.

Russian News Agency T The ASS said the decision was welcomed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Germany, Heiko Maas.

“We, the foreign ministers of Germany and Russia, welcome the German government's decision, given the acceptance of responsibility for crimes in those years Germany has committed, to show a voluntary human gesture for victims of the siege, which are still alive”, the statement of the two ministers said.

The 12m-euro donation will be used for modernisation of hospitals for war veterans and the establishment of the German-Russian Centre.

Lavrov and Maas are convinced that this gesture will contribute to improving the living standards of victims of the siege and will serve historic reconciliation between the peoples of both countries, which is essential for bilateral relations in the future.

The German Foreign Ministry on the anniversary of the end of Leningrad's siege stressed that Germany acknowledges its responsibility for the blockade.

In World War II, the Germans held full blockades of Leningrad, in which more than a million people died of hunger, air and artillery bombings in one of the most terrible episodes of World War II.

Today's siege of the city, known as St Petersburg, lasted 872 days from September 1941 to January 27, 1944. /Anadolu Agency/