Ukrainian MFA warns any foreign troops against participating in Moscow parade on May 9
Any foreign military personnel, who intend to participate in the parade in Moscow on May 9, must realize that they will be marching side by side with people who committed war crimes in Ukraine, said Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhyi.
"I will repeat our general attitude to the event that Moscow will call the ‘victory parade’ on May 9. We believe that the Russian military who will march on Red Square on May 9 not only have nothing to do with the victory over Nazism, but are also, quite possibly, participants in war crimes against Ukrainians during the Russian aggression against Ukraine," he said at a briefing in Kyiv on Friday.
The spokesperson stressed that "any foreign military personnel who plan to participate in this parade must realize that they will likely be marching side by side with people who committed war crimes in Ukraine."
"In our opinion, this has nothing to do with honoring the feat of the victors over Nazism - and this, by the way, is not only Russians," Tykhyi said.
He also noted the enormous role of Ukraine in World War II and the losses amounting to 8 million people. He called the downplaying of Ukraine's participation as one of the countries that won the victory over Nazism a cynical manipulation and distortion of historical truth.
Earlier, the media reported that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic had not changed his mind about visiting Moscow on May 9, despite warnings from the European Union, and said that Serbia was participating in the "joint" organization of the parade in Moscow.