Europeans have sunk so low that the European Union leadership warned EU heads of government against participating in Moscow’s May 9 celebrations this Friday of the 80th anniversary of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
Nor is the EU inviting Russia to take part in anniversary events related to the liberation of Nazi camps or to D-Day, when the U.S.S.R. played an essential role in easing the Western allies’ Normandy landing by re-directing Wehrmacht divisions to the Eastern front.
Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat, on April 15 warned EU leaders to stay away from Moscow. “Any participation in the 9th May parades or celebrations in Moscow will not be taken lightly on the European side, considering that Russia is really waging a full-scale war in Europe,” Kallas told reporters. Kiev instead invited leaders of EU countries to come to the Ukrainian capital on Friday.
The Soviet Union destroyed 70 percent of the Wehrmacht and suffered by far the greatest number of casualties in the anti-Nazi front, the deaths of some 25 million people. Yet the EU is shunning the chance to recall this historic alliance and ease tensions with Russia, which could be an attempt at setting the groundwork to end the still raging war in Ukraine.
While it appeared at first that several EU leaders would ignore Kallas’ warning, only one is attending: Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico.
Fico reacted angrily to the “disrespectful” remarks from Brussels. “I would like to inform you that I am a legitimate premier of Slovakia, a sovereign country,“ he told reporters. “Nobody can order me where to go or not to go.“ Fico said he will travel to Moscow to honor the Red Army soldiers who liberated his country and other victims of the Nazis.
Hungary’s Viktor Orban, who has been open to good relations with Moscow, said he would not attend, essentially because Hungary was with the Nazis on the losing side in the war.
Gergely Gulyas, minister in charge of the Hungarian prime minister’s office, said: “For the Hungarian people, the end of World War II had a different significance than for other countries that participated in it.”
Leaders from the following countries will take part in the Moscow event: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Burkina Faso, China, Congo, Cuba, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Palestine, Serbia, Slovakia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.
Moscow says it’s taking extensive measures to protect them on Friday against a drone attack from Ukraine, which has repeatedly struck the Russian capital with drones. The alarm is real after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksy said he can’t guarantee the safety of the 30 heads of state and government who will attend.
“Our position is very simple for all countries traveling to Russia on May 9: We cannot be held responsible for what happens on the territory of the Russian Federation,” Zelensky told journalists last Saturday. “They are responsible for your safety. We will not provide any guarantees, because we do not know what Russia might do on those dates.”
Where Is Trump?
An international group that started the “Elbe Spirit” movement publicized an appeal to President Donald Trump to go to Moscow where he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader XI Jinping, recreating an historic Yalta 2.0 summit to start drafting a new World Security Architecture.
In addition to the U.S.-Russia alliance during World War II, Trump should recall the role of the Russian Empire during the American Revolutionary War. Empress Catherine the Great refused British pleas to send 20,000 Russian troops to suppress the rebellion. King George III even offered the island of Minorca as a bribe to get Russia to come to Britain’s aid, but Catherine refused.
Russia’s neutrality helped the American cause by decisively hindering British efforts to defeat the rebels.
Trump is calling the conflict in Ukraine “Biden’s War,” though it was Trump who first armed Ukraine. He says he wants to end it.
It is time to fulfill his pledge. Using the symbolic date of May 9 to both celebrate the end of WWII and to work towards preventing WWIII would have inscribed his name in the history books.
Instead, Trump has apparently listened to his neo-con advisers and decided to skip the opportunity to break with shortsighted European leaders and, despite them, bring peace to their continent.
Source: Consortium News.
