Commemoration of the end of the world war
Zelenskyj: Ukraine is part of the free world
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj received politicians from all over the world in Kyiv. Photo: Efrem Lukatsky/AP/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Celebrities from all over the world traveled to Ukraine for the 77th anniversary of the end of World War II. For President Zelenskyy, this is a sign that his country is a “full part of the free world”.
The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj sees great symbolic power in the trips of international celebrities to his country on the anniversary of the end of the World War in Europe.
“Today in Ukraine has shown that we are already a full part of the free world and a united Europe,” Zelenskyy said in his daily video address. “This is an obvious contrast to Moscow’s loneliness in evil and hatred, which everyone will see tomorrow,” he said, referring to the “Day of Victory” celebrations over Hitler’s Germany in the Russian capital on Monday.
On Sunday, US President’s wife Jill Biden, Bundestag President Bärbel Bas, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U2 musicians Bono and The Edge, among others, visited Ukraine. Zelenskyj also spoke in a conference call with the heads of government of the G7 industrialized nations.
“Russia has forgotten everything that was important to the victors of World War II,” said the Ukrainian president. In a particular insult to Moscow, he again drew a parallel between the Russian attackers and Nazi Germany: “I am grateful to all our defenders who are defending Ukraine and saving it from the modern descendants of this ancient evil.” He had previously accused the Russian troops of having “organized a bloody rerun of Nazism” in Ukraine.