The Saint Petersburg City Court has recognised the Siege of Leningrad carried out by the Nazi Germany troops as a genocide, the joint city court press service reports.
Photo: the press service of the court
“To recognise the Siege of Leningrad by Germany’s occupation authorities and troops and its accomplices — armed units formed on the territories of Belgium, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Norway, and Finland, as well as individual volunteer fighters from Austria, Latvia, Poland, France, and Czechia during the period from 8 September 1941 to 27 January 1944 — a war crime, a crime against humanity, and a genocide of national and ethnic groups that were making up the population of the USSR, people of the Soviet Union,” the judge’s ruling states.
During the hearing, it became known that “the death toll during the siege amounted to at least 1,093,842 people”, while the damage sustained is estimated at 35.3 trillion rubles (€585.4 billion).
The Saint Petersburg Regional Court previously recognised the crimes committed by German troops and their allies during the Great Patriotic War on the territory of the region as a genocide. The case files mentioned the creation of filtration camp Dulag 154 where at least 80,000 people died due to the brutal detention regime.
