Candles lit as St Petersburg remembers WW2 invasion

Some 150 volunteers arranged 50-thousand candles in St Petersburg early on Wednesday to commemorate the 81st anniversary of Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union. The installation comprised several symbolic images depicting various landmarks including the Admiralty and the Narva Triumphal Arch. It took about one hour to light the candles at midnight, with local residents watching from behind a fence for fire safety reasons. Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, a massive invasion of the Soviet Union, on 22 June 1941.