Ravaged by the Russian invasion, Ukraine discreetly marks the anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in 1945 this year, but it is its victory over Moscow that it hopes for, while drawing a parallel between the brutality of the Nazis and Russian troops on its soil.
Unlike Russia, this former Soviet republic, which estimates its civilian and military losses during the Second World War (1939-1945) at more than eight million people, had already focused for years on commemorating the victims rather than on the celebration.
But this year, the Ukrainians dream of another victory, that over Moscow, which has put their country on fire and blood since its invasion launched on February 24.
“After decades of peace, Russia has brought back to Europe the horror of the massacres of civilians,” said adviser to the Ukrainian presidential administration, Mykhailo Podoliak, in written comments to AFP. But “Ukraine and Europe will have a new date for a real victory over Russian expansionism, chauvinism and Nazism.”
“It’s not for tomorrow and we’re going to have to pay very dearly for it,” he added as, faced with Ukrainian resistance, the Russian army abandoned the north of the country but fierce fighting continued in the north. East and South.
The Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance has come up with a new slogan for this year. “We defeated the Nazis, we will defeat the Russians,” reads the banner, which also features portraits of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler (1933-1945) and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
– Poppy –
If the program of commemorations has not yet been unveiled, “no gathering will take place” in kyiv, martial law and Russian strikes oblige, warned Friday the mayor Vitaly Klitschko.
Highly symbolic in Russia, the feast of May 9 is each year the occasion of a great military parade in Moscow, on Red Square, a very patriotic meeting increasingly instrumentalized by the power to weld the nation by glorifying the “feat of the Russian people”.
Russia is “cynically exploiting the memory and terms of World War II”, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry accused on Sunday, with Moscow saying its invasion of Ukraine is aimed at “denazifying” the country.
kyiv had begun to break away from Soviet-style celebrations some 15 years ago when the term ‘Great Patriotic War’, still in use in Moscow, gave way to ‘World War II’ in official speeches. and history textbooks.
This trend was reinforced with the “de-Sovietization” launched by kyiv after the annexation, in 2014, by Moscow of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea (south) followed by a war in the East against the separatists supported by the Kremlin.
Since 2015 Ukrainians have used the poppy as the official emblem of the commemorations, as do some Anglo-Saxon countries.
– “Key change” –
Seen as a “symbol of Russian aggression” in Ukraine, the orange and black St. George’s ribbon used by Russians and separatists has been banned since 2017 and punishable by a fine of up to 160 euros or even detention for 15 days.
Finally, since 2015, the commemorations take place not only on May 9, as in the former USSR and in Russia, but also on May 8, called “Day of memory and reconciliation”, in line with European tradition.
Although May 9 remained symbolically important for 80% of Ukrainians until recently, the Russian invasion led to the collapse of this figure to 34%, according to a poll published at the end of April by the Ukrainian institute Rating, which pointed to a “key shift in historical memory”.
More than a third of Ukrainians now see it as a “relic of the past” and nearly a quarter an ordinary day, according to the same source. Some politicians are even calling for the abandonment of any celebration on May 9.
For Volodymyr Kostiouk, 62, son of a former Soviet prisoner of war interned in a Nazi concentration camp, this day always had a personal dimension that has disappeared today.
Russians and Ukrainians “fought together against the Nazis, it was our joint victory. Today the Russians kill us and torture us and this common history no longer exists,” said this bank employee.
“What party is this? Did we only win so that they would annihilate us now?”, protests this man, who left kyiv for the west of the country, fleeing Russian bombs.