Ukraine renounces 9 May commemoration of victory over Nazi Germany in order to break away from Russia
According to Soviet and Russian tradition, Ukraine will refrain from any commemoration of the victory over Nazi Germany on May 9th and henceforth celebrate this day on May 8th with “the free world”, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Monday.
The May 8 commemorations “are the story of our people, our allies, the free world. Today we are giving it back to our people,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address marking the end of World War II, fifteen months after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the worst military conflict in Europe since 1945.
He said Monday he would submit a bill to parliament declaring May 8 a “Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in World War II.” Mr Zelensky also added that he had signed a decree establishing a “Europe Day” on May 9th.
Western countries commemorate the anniversary of the German surrender on May 8, but Moscow has always kept the date of May 9 due to time zone differences. “Every year, starting tomorrow, May 9th, we will celebrate our historic unity, the unity of all Europeans who destroyed and will defeat Nazism [la Russie] the Ukrainian head of state continued. “Today, like eighty years ago, Ukraine is fighting total evil,” he added. “Today, as we did eighty years ago, we rely on the combined strength of free peoples and know that we will always be part of a free Europe that will never bow to evil. »
This speech comes on the occasion of world celebrations on May 8 and on the eve of a grand military parade in Moscow designed to glorify Russia’s patriotic sentiment, which Vladimir Putin will attend. Since 2015, Ukrainian commemorations have been held not only on May 9, but also on May 8, the “Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation”, as a sign of rapprochement with European tradition.
In a post on Facebook, the Ukrainian parliament recalls that Kyiv began moving away from Soviet-style celebrations about fifteen years ago, when the term “Great Patriotic War”, which was still in force in Moscow, was replaced by the term “ Second world “giving way to war” in official speeches. This trend was reinforced by the “de-Sovietization” initiated by Kiev after Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea (south) peninsula in 2014, followed by a war in the east against pro-Russian separatists.