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Europe and the rest of the world commemorate this May 8 the armistice or end of hostilities in World War II, which involved the surrender of Nazi Germany forces to Soviet troops. This year, the date focuses attention on Ukraine, the current scene of the largest armed conflict in Europe in decades, since Russia ordered large-scale attacks against its neighboring country on February 24.
Russian patriotism and global rejection of the war are mixed amid commemorations for the end of World War II. The date commemorates the defeat of Nazi Germany, after a conflict that devastated millions of lives between 1939 and 1945.
But the clashes on European soil, with thousands of dead and millions displaced, are not part of the past. “We thought that the war had disappeared from Europe,” said French President Emmanuel Macron, during the commemorations this Sunday, May 8, in Paris.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian stressed that “soldiers from all over the Soviet Union, including Ukrainians and Russians, who contributed to the victory” over Nazi Germany should not be forgotten.
The date is remembered by different names. In some countries, such as France and Slovakia, it is a national holiday. In Germany, it is a day of remembrance. After 12 years of brutal dictatorship, almost six years of war, 60 million dead and six million Jews systematically murdered, Nazi Germany was finally defeated on May 8 and the war in Europe was over.
However, in 2022 the date comes at a time when the world is witnessing the first attack against a European nation since the Balkan War in the 1990s and the largest war in the Old Continent since World War II. .
Volodymyr Zelensky: “evil has returned”
For Ukraine, May 8 is the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation, with which the victims are commemorated.
The country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, published an emotional video on social networks in which he compared the ongoing Russian attacks with the invasion of his country by the Nazis.
“In Mariupol, during two years of occupation, the Nazis killed 10,000 people; in two months of occupation, the Russians have killed 20,000. Darkness has returned to Ukraine. And it turned black and white again. Evil has returned Again! (…) In a different way, under different slogans, but with the same purpose,” stressed the president in reference to the war against his nation, ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin, on February 24.
In a video released by Zelensky in Borodyanka for May 8, Ukraine’s Day of Remembrance & Reconciliation, he asks, “never again? Try telling Ukraine that.” He draws comparisons between Ukraine fight against Russia to WW2 fight against fascism. Air raid sirens sounded as I posted. pic.twitter.com/J8qOzzWuOA
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) May 8, 2022
Zelenski added that his people reject “all forms of exploitation and manipulation of the memory of those who gave their lives.”
The Russian president has used the speech of “denazifying” Ukraine to justify the war that leaves thousands of people dead, around ten million displaced and dozens of cities and towns destroyed.
Amid 74 days of violence, kyiv, Western governments and organizations like Amnesty International accuse Russia of war crimes. Among them, executions of civilians and rapes against women and girls, as well as bombings in areas where non-military Ukrainians take refuge.
Moscow celebrates Victory Day, while highlighting its conflict against kyiv
Russia commemorates the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany on May 9, and many fear that Vladimir Putin may use the opportunity to mobilize his country for even greater conflict.
Red Soviet flags and orange and black striped military ribbons are displayed in Russian cities and towns. Neighborhoods are hosting holiday concerts and veterans’ groups are laying flowers at monuments to the Great Patriotic War, as World War II is known in the country.
At first glance, the preparations for what Moscow calls Victory Day appear to be business as usual, but the mood this year is very different, as Russian troops fight and die again, facing massive resistance. higher than they expected in the Kremlin’s attempted invasion of Ukraine.
Putin has spent years assuring that Nazi groups have taken power in kyiv and argues that he launched his offensive to free the population from a “genocide” on Ukrainian territory. Some citizens fear that the Russian president will use his speech to declare a full-fledged attack on what he previously called a “special military operation,” which would entail a vast mobilization of troops to reinforce Russian units.
“I don’t recall a time when the May 9 holiday was so eagerly anticipated,” noted historian Ivan Kurilla.
Ukraine’s intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, assured that Moscow is covertly preparing a new offensive. British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace argued that Putin is “preparing the ground to be able to say: ‘Now it’s a war against the Nazis, and what I need is more people.'”
The Kremlin denies such intentions, describing them as “false” and “nonsense” reports. However, Moscow had denied prior to the start of the offensive that it planned to attack Ukrainian territory and now, during the commemoration of the end of World War II, there are those who fear a resurgence of the conflict.
With Reuters, AP and EFE
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