Government of Kaluga, a Russian city of over 300,000 people, put the armed clash in Debaltseve, Ukraine on the list of greatest Russian victories of all time.

Only several days remain until Victory Day when the World will celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Allied Victory in WW2.

While Moscow is getting ready for a massive military parade, smaller cities resort to less expensive but no less intricate ways to glorify Russian military achievements. Huge banners that appeared on the fence of Oka Park office building in Kaluga can perhaps be recognized as the most unconventional Victory Day greeting. ‘Today Crimea, tomorrow — Rome’ proudly pronounces one of them, most likely seeking to indicate further development of Russian foreign policy.

Other banners on the same building venerate Russian historic military victories. Their list opens with the Battle on the Ice (1242), then continues with the battles of Kulikovo (1380), Borodino (1812), Kursk (1943)…

…and surprisingly ends with the recent Battle of Debaltseve (January 16 — February 20, 2015) that took place on Ukrainian territory currently controlled by LPR/DPR militant enclave, made of Russian puppet ‘self-proclaimed’ republics. Debaltseve battle was the largest and one of the fiercest combat clashes of the ongoing war in Donbas that started in April, 2014.

While ordinary residents of Kaluga simple-heartily greet annexation of Crimea and glorify Russian troops that seized the territories of a sovereign neighbor country, official Moscow continues to deny its direct involvement into Ukrainian conflict. Still, history teaches us that truth always comes out whether it is partition of Poland between Germany and USSR in 1939 or Russian war against Ukraine in 2014—2015.

Original article by kaluga24.tv translated and adopted by Christina Dobrovolska, edited by Gennadiy Kornev.