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World War II in Europe: A war remembered – and repeated
When facts are manipulated, when the aggressor dresses itself in the symbols of justice and when war crimes are paraded as heroism, the world must pay attention.
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Local resident Lidia walks on Wednesday down the stairs of her heavily damaged building where she lives in the basement in the town of Lyman, near the frontline in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP/Tetiana Dzhafarova)
T
his May, the world marks 80 years since the defeat of Nazism and the end of World War II in Europe. It is a moment to honor the lives lost, the cities rebuilt and the principles that shaped the postwar order: peace, sovereignty and justice.
For Ukraine, the memory of WWII is more than historical, it is personal, lived and once again painfully relevant.
During WWII, Ukraine was among the most devastated territories. The frontline passed over it twice, first from west to east and then from east to west. An estimated 8 million Ukrainians were killed: 5 million civilians and 3 million soldiers. Ukrainians fought not only in the Red Army but also in the armies of the allies of the anti-Hitler coalition, as well as in resistance movements.
Today, that legacy is being distorted, and the principles forged in 1945 are under attack by Russia’s attempts to justify a new war of aggression.
Across Europe, May 8 is commemorated as a Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation, a time to honor those who died and to reflect on the shared goal of peace. Ukraine upholds this tradition. Especially now, as it fights to defend not only its own freedom, but also the principles that once united the world against tyranny.
The Kremlin continues to manipulate the narrative of WWII. By commonly using the term “Great Patriotic War” it obscures the Soviet Union’s role as a co-aggressor in 1939.
It deliberately erases the first two years of the war, 1939 to 1941, when the Communist Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were military partners under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, under which they divided and together invaded Poland, and when the USSR also launched a war against Finland, annexed the Baltic states and parts of Romania – all before Hitler turned on Stalin in 1941.
