KYIV, Ukraine (NewsNation) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy released a video address to the war-ravaged nation on Monday, marking the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, and promising that Ukraine will soon have “two Victory Days.”
“We will never forget what our ancestors did in World War II. Where more than 8 million Ukrainians died. And every fifth Ukrainian didn’t return home. In total, the war claimed at least 50 million lives,” Zelenskyy said. “We don’t say, ‘We can repeat.'”
Zelenskyy stressed that “soon there will be two Victory Days in Ukraine.” “And someone will not have even one left. We won then, we will win now, too,” he said, in reference to Russia’s war against Ukraine.
In London, Britain’s defense secretary says Russian leader Vladimir Putin and his generals are mirroring the tyranny of the Nazis in World War II and repeating the errors of the last century’s totalitarian regimes as they pursue the illegal invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking on the day Russia celebrated the anniversary of its victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, Ben Wallace said Putin had hijacked the nation’s “proud history” of repelling fascism to justify his attack on a sovereign state.
“Their unprovoked, illegal, senseless and self-defeating invasion of Ukraine, their attacks against innocent civilians on their homes, their widespread atrocities, including the deliberate targeting of women and children, they all corrupt the memory of past sacrifices and Russia’s once proud global reputation,’’ Wallace said at the National Army Museum in London.
Wallace spoke as Putin reviewed Russian troops and military hardware parading through Moscow’s Red Square on what is known as Victory Day in Russia. The parade has an ulterior political motive, Wallace said.
“Really what President Putin wants is the Russian people and the world to be awed and intimidated by the ongoing memorial to militarism,” he said.