January 18 is the Day of the Breakthrough of the Leningrad Blockade

Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization take part in the commemoration of the Day of the Breakthrough of the Leningrad Blockade.
January 18 is a memorable day for every person living in Leningrad. Seventy-nine years ago, on January 18, 1943, Operation Iskra that began on January 12 broke the blockade of Leningrad.
Troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts united near Industrial Township No. 5, having broken through the strongest defence of the Hitlerite troops (suffice it to say that in the area of the breakthrough, for each kilometre of the front, the 18th Army of the German Army Group North had over 20 permanent firing points, each section was defended by large infantry forces, with 12 heavy machine guns and 20 light machine guns per square metre). It was the fifth attempt to break through, and this time, it was successful.
Owing to this operation, in the shortest time, a 32-kilometre-long railway line was built to move trains carrying food, ammunition and equipment under ceaseless artillery and aviation attacks. Already by February 7, 1943, for the first time in a year and a half, a train arrived in Leningrad from the “Mainland.” In the city, the food rations were noticeably raised, the power supply improved. And despite of almost a year of shelling, bombing and deaths of loved ones still laying ahead, for as long as the City on the Neva stands, January 18 will be the day of our Leningrad Victory.
Today the main commemorative events dedicated to the Day of the Breakthrough of the Leningrad Blockade will be traditionally held in the Kirovsky district of the Leningrad oblast, in the open-air museum Breakthrough of the Leningrad Blockade, where the events of 1943 unfolded.
Fresh flowers are also being laid at the monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad on Victory Square in St Petersburg.