The Battle of Stalingrad (film) counter-offensive. The Wehrmacht launches a last, massive assault, intended to overwhelm the defenders of Stalingrad. As the Red Army is pushed back to the Volga, Stalin orders to commence Operation Uranus. The Germans are encircled, and efforts to relieve the Stalingrad pocket fail. Paulus, ordered by Hitler to hold to the end, refuses to surrender while his soldiers starve. The Soviets close on the city, destroying the Sixth Army. After Red Army soldiers enter his command post, Paulus orders his remaining troops to surrender. The Soviets hold a victory rally in liberated Stalingrad; In Moscow, Stalin looks at a map,
Timeline of the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation accused of treason and a fight ensued over the flagpole. More protesters rallied outside the Sevastopol administration offices. Pro-Russian demonstrators accompanied by neo-Cossacks demanded the selection of a Russian citizen as mayor (which was refused by the city council) and planted Russian flags at city hall; they also handed out leaflets calling for volunteers to a militia and warning that the "Blue-Brown Europlague is knocking." On 24 February, a pro-Russian rally in Sevastopol chose Aleksei Chalyi, a Russian citizen, as mayor. This was controversial because Sevastopol has no mayor as the Chairman of the Sevastopol City State Administration (Governor of