Vladimir Putin’s commemorations for fallen troops presented more as a show of military strength than solemn memorial
In Moscow, Russia’s president Vladimir Putin marked the deaths of some 27 million Russians killed in that terrible conflagration. By his side stood China’s Xi Jinping and several dozen other leaders, who reviewed a military parade as Russia showcased its arsenal. The enormous Russian sacrifice should not be forgotten.
The writer Maya Angelou put it: “History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.” But Putin’s conjuring up of imperial ambitions has revisited a hell continental Europe hoped it had left behind.
More than three years into the Ukraine war, in which once again hundreds of thousands of lives are being lost, the proceedings had more a sense of menace, than solemnity, as the lines of tanks and lorries loaded with missiles rolled by.
In Brussels, leaders have agreed to back a special tribunal to prosecute Putin for the “crime of aggression” against Ukraine. It was the same charge that was brought against Germany and Japan when World War II ended.
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Back then, Russia supported the charges.
In an address, Putin said: “The Soviet Union took upon itself the most ferocious, merciless blows of the enemy.
“We highly appreciate the contribution of the soldiers of the Allied armies, the members of the resistance, the courageous people of China, and all those who fought for a peaceful future to our common struggle.”
Foreign leaders including China’s Xi Jinping joined Vladimir Putin for the celebrations in Moscow. Photo: Photo: RIA Novosti via AP
But there were nothing peaceful about this highly staged show of militarism.
The sight of Mr Xi, as well as North Korean generals, in Moscow aligning themselves with Putin will be interpreted as an endorsement of his aggression to the wider world. Their alignment represents a worrying harbinger of a new order, where brute force takes precedence over law and sovereignty.
Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed the Red Square procession as ‘a parade of cynicism. There is just no other way to describe it. A parade of bile and lies’
The Kremlin wasted no time in highlighting how Russia is not isolated, even if Moscow’s former World War II Western allies stay away.
US president Donald Trump brought the Russian leader in from the cold. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed the Red Square procession as “a parade of cynicism. There is just no other way to describe it. A parade of bile and lies,” he said.
Mr Trump has sought to end the war, but his efforts have been weighed heavily towards Moscow.
This week, he was even accused by former president Joe Biden of “modern-day appeasement” for pressurising Kyiv to surrender territory illegally taken.
“Europe’s leaders are asking: ‘Can I rely on the United States? Are they going to be there?’,” he said.
With so many threats on so many fronts, the case for acting in concert is so much stronger than acting alone. For as Dwight D Eisenhower cautioned: “The only way to win World War III is to prevent it.”
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