Russian Ambassador to London to award British veterans

On Thursday the Russian Embassy to Great Britain will host a ceremony of awarding British veterans of the Northern convoys with service medals.

Ambassador Grigory Karasin will hand Russian government awards, service medals issued in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic war of 1941-1945, to 39 British veterans.

"Such ceremonies are held twice a year," the Russian Embassy reported. The Russian mission together with the British Association of War Veterans finds participants of the convoys and recommends them for awarding.

The two last ceremonies of awarding Royal Armed Forces veterans took place in June and November last year.

On the whole the service medals have been awarded to over 3,000 of convoy veterans.

During the Second World War the northern convoys, comprised mainly of British servicemen, as the United Kingdom was the USSR's ally in this war, delivered food and military equipment via the Arctic waters to Soviet northern ports.

On the whole these convoys delivered about 4 million metric tons of cargoes, which is about one fourth of western allies' total aid. The cargoes included over 7,000 airplanes, about 5,000 tanks, cars, fuel, medicines, outfit, metals and other raw materials.