The recent D-day commemorations strove to project a message of western unity in the face of a new European aggression. This time it was not Nazi Germany that was the threat, but Russia.
It was the right message to send – and one sorely needed at a time when the devastating conflict in the Middle East is competing with Ukraine for the world’s attention. But we need to be careful with the oft-repeated story that the Normandy landings were about the west saving freedom and democracy in Europe from Nazism.
By the time the allied invasion launched in Normandy, a much larger Soviet operation was completing its rout of the German armies in Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltics. And recognising the role that the Soviet Union, including Ukraine, played in that conflict is vital for our understanding of the situation today.
