Russia prepared for scaled-back and tightly-guarded Victory Day events as Ukraine moved to formally align its own commemoration of the defeat of Nazi Germany with most of Europe, in another symbolic step towards the West and away from its Soviet past.
Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and senior political and military allies will oversee the traditional military parade on Red Square on Tuesday, while Kyiv will host European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, as the EU marks “Europe Day” to celebrate “peace and unity” on the Continent.
Kyiv objects to Russia’s attempts to monopolise the memory of Soviet suffering and heroism during the second World War and its use of the symbols and rhetoric of Soviet victory to justify and glorify its invasion of Ukraine, which it portrays as a fight against “neo-Nazis”.
Ukraine began informally marking the end of the second World War on May 8th – like most of Europe – after Russia annexed Crimea and covertly attacked eastern Ukraine in 2014 but Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said on Monday it was time to make it official.
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“I am submitting a Bill to the Verkhovna Rada [parliament] of Ukraine, proposing that May 8th be the Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in the second World War. We will never forget the contribution of the Ukrainian people to the victory over Nazism. And, we will not allow anyone to erase the role of Ukrainians in this victory,” he announced.
“We destroyed evil together, in the same way as we are now opposing a similar evil together. Remembering the heroism of millions of Ukrainians in that war against Nazism, we see the same heroism in the actions of our soldiers now – the descendants of those who secured victory on May 8th, 1945,” he added.
“We fought then and we fight now so that no one ever again enslaves other nations and destroys other countries. And, all those old evils that modern Russia is bringing back will be defeated, just as Nazism was defeated.”
Officials in Moscow condemned Mr Zelenskiy’s decision and Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, described him as a “21st century Judas”.
“What could be worse than an enemy? A traitor. This is Zelenskiy,” she wrote on social media.
“By cancelling Victory Day on May 9th, he betrayed his ancestors once and for all: those who fought in the ranks of the Red Army, those who suffered and were tortured in concentration camps and those who worked for victory in the rear. He is a fascist accomplice, 80 years on,” she added.
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Russia’s main military parade is scheduled to take place on Red Square but more than 20 cities around the country have cancelled their own smaller parades due to security concerns. Some analysts believe another factor is a lack of hardware available to Russia’s armed forces following 14 months of heavy fighting and major losses in Ukraine.
Security fears have been intensified by a recent series of drone attacks in Russia, most of which have targeted military and industrial sites, but which also included an alleged strike by two drones on the Kremlin.
Moscow accused Kyiv of mounting the attack, without explaining how the drones could have flown more than 500km from Ukrainian territory and evaded Russian air defences.
Ukrainian officials said on Monday that three people had been killed and 28 injured in Russian missile, drone and shelling attacks over the previous 24 hours. Kyiv said its air defences had shot down all 35 explosive “kamikaze” drones launched at the city.
The Ukrainian Red Cross said a missile destroyed a warehouse holding its humanitarian aid in Odesa region and damaged one of its mobile hospitals in neighbouring Mykolaiv region.
