Belarus celebrated its day of Independence (3 July) and the 70th anniversary of its liberation from Nazi invaders with the opening of a new Museum on the Great Patriotic War (the eastern European name for WW2) in the Belarusian capital of Minsk.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko were both on hand – along with veterans of the war – to open the museum. It commemorates the eastern campaign of World War II between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, which lasted from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945.

The museum – designed by architect Viktor Kramarenko – covers 15,000sq m (161,000sq ft) and houses 142,000 exhibits, including tanks, planes and weapons, as well as large-scale installations and multi-media guides. Construction costs for the museum have not been revealed.

10 exhibition halls at the museum take visitors from the start of the conflict to the end in chronological order, using audio and video technology to tell the story through the new museum’s various installations.