Bulletin No46 mai 2024 June 6 is the high point of the commemorations of the Allied landings in Normandy. Since Nazi Germany's attack on the USSR began on June 21, 1941, most of the war has been fought in the east and it is the USSR which bears the essential weight. If in the first phase of the war, the Nazi troops advanced, the turnaround in the situation put them on the defensive then on the retreat. It is at the cost of enormous sacrifices and 23 million deaths, the heaviest toll of all the belligerents engaged in the war, that the Red Army and the Soviet peoples will make the essential contribution to the final defeat of the Germany. This is why, since 1942, the Soviet leadership has been pressing the Allies to open a second front in Europe to relieve its troops on the Eastern Front. To measure the relative share of the Western and Eastern fronts, at the end of 1944, if 235 German divisions opposed the Soviets only 65 faced the Allies. This shows the decisive role of the USSR in the defeat of Nazi Germany and in the liberation of Europe.
Obviously, the role of the Allied troops on the Western Front, as well as that of the French Internal Resistance, largely led by the Communists, in the liberation of France cannot be doubted and the sacrifice of all these fighters must be remembered and celebrated, as must be remembered the role of all the allies of the coalition who put an end to Nazi Germany and the procession of atrocities it committed against the people.
On April 16, the Liberation mission to the Ministry of the Armed Forces announced its intention to invite Russia to the celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the Allied landings: " so that the importance of the commitment and sacrifices of the Soviet peoples, as well as his contribution to the victory of 1945, be honored . This invitation did not give any release to Russia for what it calls its special operation in Ukraine and which we describe as a war within imperialism on the territory of Ukraine. On May 30, the Élysée renounced this invitation to Russia, replacing it with an invitation to Ukrainian President V. Zelensky.
This is not to contest the participation and sacrifices of Ukraine as a Socialist Republic within the USSR in the fight against Nazi Germany. However, we cannot ignore the role played by Ukrainian nationalists who chose to collaborate and fight alongside the Nazis, participating among other things in the extermination of Ukrainian Jews. If in the resistance, including in France, there were Ukrainian fighters, they were much more numerous in Normandy and not exactly on the good side, including in the SS "Frundsberg" division which participated in the fighting against the allies.
However, post-Maidan Ukraine, and the start of the civil war in Donbass and the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014, is characterized by heavy tributes to collaborators with Nazi Germany. Thus, in May 2015, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko promulgated the “ decommunization laws ”. They punished the promotion of communist ideas, banned Soviet symbols and elevated anti-Semitic groups that had collaborated with the Nazis to the rank of " independence fighters ": the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), whose militias participated in the extermination of the Jews, and its military branch, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), responsible among other things for the massacre of one hundred thousand Poles.
Both now benefit from a national tribute on October 14. And every January 1 , in Kiev, a torchlight march honors the memory of Stepan Bandera, leader of these two organizations and collaborator of the Third Reich. This Table would be incomplete without mentioning the integration into the army, in May 2014, of the Azov battalion, a neo-Nazi militia which borrows its emblem from the SS Das Reich division.
So, as was the case in Canada during V. Zelensky's visit and the vibrant tribute paid in Parliament to a former Ukrainian SS man in his presence [1] , the question arises: Who is coming to celebrate in France on the 6th June V. Zelensky?
[1] https://www.sitecommunistes.org/index.php/monde/amerique-du-nord/2467-au-sujet-des-nazis-ukrainiens-ovationnes-au-canada-interview-dadrien-welsh-secretaire-national- of-the-communist-party-of-quebec-member-of-the-executive-committee-of-the-communist-party-of-canada