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France says Russia can be represented but president will not be invited because of war in Ukraine
Russia will be invited to send representatives to an international ceremony commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-day – but not Vladimir Putin, the French organisers have announced.
The Élysée is reported to have accepted that the country should be represented but said its leader is not welcome because of Moscow’s ongoing war on Ukraine.
“In view of the circumstances, President Putin will not be invited to take part in the commemorations of the Normandy landings,” the Liberation Mission organising committee said.
The DDay landing was the greatest war event for the Americans, British and Canadians but compared to what happened on the Eastern front, the Russians basically bled themselves and the Germans dry by the time the Allies started fighting again.
I have family that were part of the landings and war veterans that took part in the fighting later on and a couple that are buried in Belgium.
DDay is an amazing story but it shouldn’t be overshadowed by what the Russians and Eastern Europeans endured in the east for almost three years.
The reason I mention this is that to the Russians DDay is not as important a WW2 event to them as it is to us. Putin and Russia won’t be as disrespected as we would like to imagine because they have way more WW2 commemorative events that saw many more people die than they did on DDay.
Yep. I imagine most nations on the Eastern Front see D-Day as “A group of Allies poked head through backyard doggy door and said, “Oi!” Day.”
Hollllllllly… I knew about the atrocities in China… But I didn’t understand the scale…
The soviets owe their existence to the United States.
The Allies owe their WW2 victory to the Russians
Soviets* ;)
The Russians owe their WW2 victory myth to Ukraine.
Not at all. Moscow falls without American trucks, trains, airplanes, boots, clothes.
If Hitler had mustered up just enough wisdom to realize that an invasion of the USSR would be disastrous and managed to contain his hatred of communism just enough to restrain himself from operation Barbarossa, he could likely have held most of Europe and a DDay type landing would have been unlikely to succeed. Nothing short of a nuclear bombardment of Europe would have dislodged them. One of the weirdest darkest historical hypotheticals. It’s amazing how much of history hinges on the personal flaws of specific leaders.
There are archive tapes of Hitler explaining why Germany should invade Russia. Hitler was running out of oil and was sure that Stalin would block access.
There’s also the fact that in some ways, it was about making sure the Russians didn’t take all of Europe. Italy was in Allied control by then, but the ways through the alps to the rest of Europe are choke points that are easily defended, and have known by military strategists since at least Roman times. If the Russians take Berlin and end Hitler, and France is still otherwise under German control, what then? Better go liberate France and as much of Germany as possible to make sure the Russians don’t get it.
I personally think the role of the soviet union in WW2 is underappreciated, too! But thats my point: soviet union, not Russia! The majority of victims in WW2 where Ukrainians, Latvians, Estonians, Poles, Belarusians and Lithuanians – the same countries now fighting Russia (except for Belarusia)!
Russia never was the good guy and Putin deserves nothing of the praise for the soviet unions role in WW2. Maybe invite the Poles, Ukrainians or Baltics insteac!