Washington, DC: The Russian embassy in Washington, DC, claims that US authorities have barred a group of Russian diplomats from visiting the graves of Soviet soldiers who died during World War II when they were in Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city.

“Unfortunately, the local American authorities, without explanation, did not allow embassy diplomats to visit the Fort Richardson National Cemetery and kneel before the graves of Soviet pilots and sailors who died in Alaska in 1942-1945,” Russian diplomat Mr. Nadezhda Shumova stated.

“Attempts to obtain access to the memorials through the State Department were unsuccessful, the diplomatic note of the [Russian] embassy in this regard was ignored,” Mr. Shumova further added.

The cemetery’s site says that a permit is necessary to enter the grounds on the US army base at Fort Richardson. The Russian embassy tweeted that Russian diplomats have previously visited the cemetery. The cemetery contains the graves of nine Soviet pilots and two other military soldiers, as per the reports.

They died while flying aircraft from the United States to the Soviet Union as part of the Lend-Lease operation during World War II. Lend-Lease was an effort, begun before the US joined the war, to supply allies with material deemed vital to the defence of the US.

Since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine on February 24th, the US-Russian diplomatic relationship has been more strained.

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