United States President Joe Biden warned, on the 80th anniversary of D-Day on Thursday, that democracy around the world was at risk, as leaders marked the 1944 landings in occupied France that helped defeat Nazi Germany in World War II.
Biden, Britain’s King Charles III, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to the tens of thousands of Allied troops who stormed the beaches of Normandy in northern France on June 6, 1944.
This year’s ceremony came against the background of the current war in Ukraine, which is fighting off Russia’s invasion. The commemorations provided a hugely symbolic backdrop to talks on how Kyiv can regain ground after recent Russian advances.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attended an international ceremony with the other leaders, during which Biden stated that D-Day showed the need for international alliances.
The US president vowed never to abandon Ukraine in its fight against Russia, a pointed swipe at his election rival, ex-president Donald Trump, who has publicly questioned the importance of organizations such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Biden also vowed that, under his leadership, the US “will not walk away” from Ukraine “because if we do, Ukraine will be subjugated, and it will not end there.”
His message that D-Day provides lessons for the present was echoed by Macron, who spoke at a ceremony attended by Zelensky overlooking Omaha beach, where US troops came ashore in 1944.
Kyiv has been pushing Europe to increase its military support, with Russia gaining the upper hand on the battlefield in recent months, and concerns growing over what a Trump presidency could mean for the conflict.
Canada’s Trudeau said democracy was “threatened by aggressors who want to redraw borders.”
The biggest guests of honor were some 180 surviving veterans in their late 90s or over 100, some in wheelchairs and huddled in blankets as they gazed over the shores.
Macron awarded a dozen of them France’s highest honor, the Légion d’Honneur.
Zelensky knelt down to embrace one veteran in a wheelchair, who shouted, “My hero!” at the Ukrainian president. “No, you are our hero,” Zelensky replied.
At the British memorial at Ver-sur-Mer, overlooking Gold beach, one of the landing sites for British troops, King Charles III said, “Our gratitude is unfailing and our admiration eternal.”
Noting the dwindling numbers of veterans from the conflict, he added, “Our obligation to remember them, what they stood for and what they achieved for us all can never diminish.”
Two veterans were unable to make it to France.
William Cameron, a 100-year-old Canadian veteran, had packed his bags weeks in advance but died just before he was to return to France, while 102-year-old Robert Persichitti from the US died on a ship en route to the ceremony.
No Russian official has been invited, underlining Moscow’s current pariah status despite the decisive Soviet contribution to defeating Nazism in World War II.
During a meeting with foreign news outlets in Saint Petersburg late Wednesday, Putin shrugged off the lack of an invitation for Russia, saying, “Let them celebrate without us.”
Valerie Leroux with Stuart Williams in Paris, with AFP
