Russia will not be invited to events marking the 80th anniversary of the Second World War's D-Day landings next Thursday given its war of aggression against Ukraine, the French presidency has announced.
Organisers had said in April that while President Vladimir Putin would not be invited to 80th-anniversary events in France, some Russian representatives would be welcome in recognition of the country's war-time sacrifice.
The commemorations will be attended by dozens of heads of state and government, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Joe Biden.
IN a press briefing on Thursday, a French presidency confirmedRussia's absence and that Zelensky had been invited given his country's "just fight" in the war against Russia.
"Russia has not been invited. The conditions for its participation are not there given the war of aggressionlaunched in February 2022, which has only increased these last weeks," the official said.
'Unease' over Russia presence
Russia is advancingin eastern Ukraine as two years of war sapsUkraine's ammunition and manpower.
Earlier this month, three other EU diplomats told Reuters news agency that a number of states from the bloc had said they would be uneasy if Russia attended.
More than 150,000 Allied troops launched the air, sea and landD-Day landings in Normandy on June 6, 1944, an operation that would lead to the liberation of western Europe from Nazi Germany.
The Soviet Union lost more than 25 million lives in what it calls the Great Patriotic War. Moscow marks the victory with a huge annual military parade on Red Square.
Russians officials have attended D-Day ceremonies in the past.
During the70th-anniversaryevents in 2014, Putin along with the then-leaders of France, Germany and Ukraine set up the so-calledNormandy format – a contact group aimed at resolving the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
At the time it focused on the Donbas and Crimea regions.
(with Reuters)
