MOSCOW: (APP) Britain's Princess Anne paid tribute to her country's "shared history" with Russia on Wednesday at a ceremony for the 75th anniversary of the launch of perilous Arctic shipping convoys to the USSR during World War II.
"You are a symbol of the shared history between the United Kingdom and Russia," Princess Anne told veterans of the operation, in which about 3,000 sailors and merchant seamen died.
Some seven decades after Britain and the Soviet Union battled Nazi Germany as allies, relations between London and Moscow are now frosty, as the UK has slapped sanctions on Russia over its meddling in Ukraine.
"It is so important that we continue to remember and honour that sacrifice made by you, our veterans," the Princess Royal said at the televised ceremony held in the northern port city of Arkhangelsk.