Battle of Stalingrad away from the oil-rich Caucasus, which had been Hitler's original grand-strategic objective. The Royal Romanian Air Force was also involved in the Axis air operations at Stalingrad. Starting 23 October 1942, Romanian pilots flew a total of 4,000 sorties, during which they destroyed 61 Soviet aircraft. The Romanian Air Force lost 79 aircraft, most of them captured on the ground along with their airfields. After three months of slow advance, the Germans finally reached the river banks, capturing 90% of the ruined city and splitting the remaining Soviet forces into two narrow pockets. Ice floes on the Volga now prevented
The Motherland Monument in February 2018 that the state emblem of the Soviet Union on the shield of the monument should be removed according to the decommunization laws. It is not removed, however, still by today. A scene in the 2006 novel "World War Z" depicts a Ukrainian tank commander and his surviving men fleeing in their vehicles from an abandoned and burning Kiev under the watchful gaze of the "Rodina-Mat". The monument is prominently featured in the music video for the song "Get Out" by the band Frightened Rabbit. The Motherland Monument The Motherland Monument (, ) is a monumental statue in