(NewsNation) — May 9 is Russia’s “Victory Day,” an annual event that commemorates the Soviet Union’s victory over Germany in World War II.

Given Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, many are wondering how Russian leadership will utilize the event. Andrij Dobriansky, Director of Communications for the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, joined NewsNation Prime on Sunday to discuss the possibilities.

“We always get these escalations around Victory Day,” Dobriansky said, “whether it’s more rhetoric or, as he has promised, to declare a formal state of war against Ukraine.”

Dobriansky noted that Ukraine commemorates the victory over Nazi Germany on May 8; the May 9 date was originally chosen by former Russian leader Joseph Stalin. Russian leadership is expected to use Victory Day to galvanize the public and shore up support for the monthslong war in Ukraine.

The UCCA and other organizations of the Ukrainian diaspora have branded the 9th as “Russian Shame Day,” pointing to the aggressive war in Ukraine.

“If we want to talk about that great victory of the Allied forces over the Nazis, we need to understand that the occupiers of Ukraine today are the new threat to the Western order, to the democratic order,” Dobriansky said, describing the message the Ukrainian diaspora is sending to the world. “They broke international law and they chiefly did what the United States condemned Nazi Germany for doing, which is breaking the peace.”