As Putin and Trump scramble to claim WWII’s victory, Ukraine’s one-day switch threatens to dismantle the myth that fueled Moscow's global power for 80 years.
President Zelenskyy, Commander-in-Chief Zaluzhnyi and military leadership paid tribute to fallen defenders at Askold's Grave in Kyiv, where also some contemporary servicemen are buried.
If, for Western Europe, the end of the war meant the victory of democracy, for Ukraine, it meant the enforcement of Stalinism. In the words of Ukrainian historian Yaroslav Hrytsak, Ukraine was “in the heart of darkness” during the Second World War, with Ukrainians mostly fighting for the interests of other states and, along with Poland, suffering the heaviest human losses of the war. Unpunished communist crimes grow, making it appropriate for Russia to start new war in 2014.