Russia will not be invited to the ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings because of its war against Ukraine, Paris said on Thursday, May 30, reversing an earlier decision.
In April, organizers said that Russia – but not its President Vladimir Putin – would be invited to the ceremonies that a host of world leaders are expected to attend to mark the landings in Normandy.
But on Thursday the French presidency said in a statement that "there will not be a Russian delegation. The conditions are not right, considering the war of aggression that Russia is waging against Ukraine that has intensified over the past several weeks."
The ceremonies will include several "gestures" to mark the "decisive contribution" that the Soviet Union played in ending the war, especially in cemeteries containing the remains of Soviet soldiers, the presidency said.
Putin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and over the past few weeks Moscow forces have slowly gained ground as they wage a renewed offensive against Ukraine's northeast city of Kharkiv.
Relations between Russia and the West plummeted to levels unseen since the Cold War in the wake of Moscow's invasion of its neighbor.
During World War II the Soviet Union was allied with Britain and the United States against Nazi Germany. The USSR suffered the greatest number of casualties in the war, with an estimated 20 million killed.