Russia wants to end its war with Ukraine on the same day it celebrates its victory in World War II, Ukrainian officials said.
This was announced by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine the Kyiv independent Their intelligence suggests the Russians want to end the war by May 9, a day celebrated in Russia to mark its victory over the Nazis more than 70 years ago.
Victory Day is one of Russia’s biggest holidays, with many schools and shops closing for the day and military parades marching across the country depending on the time and date. It marks Nazi Germany’s surrender to Soviet forces in 1945.
As Russian President Vladimir Putin keeps claiming that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a “denazification” of the country — despite there being no evidence of widespread Nazism and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish — the date has come for Russians meaning in both the past and present.
The news comes as Russia’s attack on Ukraine marks the end of its first month. During Russia’s various attacks in Ukraine, Russia has claimed that it is targeting Nazis rather than civilians. For example, a Russian official said that forces earlier this month bombed a nuclear research laboratory in Kharkiv because the Azov Battalion, a neo-Nazi military regiment, plans to blow it up and blame the Russians.
Ukraine reported Russia wants to end the war by May 9, which it is celebrating as Victory Day of World War II. Above, Ukrainian soldiers carry a fragment of a missile in front of a building in Kyiv March 24, 2022 after it was destroyed by Russian shelling. Photo by Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images
Officials also said a children’s and maternity home in Mariupol was the target of an airstrike because far-right radicals took over it, although no evidence was presented. Politicians around the world, including in the United States, have labeled the attacks on the hospital and nuclear facilities as war crimes.
Despite Putin’s claims that denazification as the reason for invading Ukraine is “propaganda,” it is true that Ukraine has seen a surge in neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups, according to a report by NBC News.
The leader of a group called Svoboda said Ukraine was controlled by a “Muscovite Jewish mafia,” while another member called the Holocaust a “bright period” in history. The founder of the Azov Battalion, which is part of Ukraine’s National Guard, said Ukraine’s “national purpose” is to get rid of the Jews and “inferior races” living in Ukraine, the report added.
However, there is no evidence of Nazism in the Ukrainian leadership. Zelensky’s own family died in the Holocaust. In a previous interview with Newsweek, Thomas Graham, Distinguished Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and co-founder of the Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia program at Yale University, said that the anti-Nazi narrative is strong in Russia.
“One of the great Russian triumphs of the last century was the victory over Nazi Germany, accomplished by the Soviet people at enormous sacrifices,” he said. “So Putin is trying to recycle this anti-Nazi narrative to appeal to a very strong emotion to get support for what he’s doing.”
Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Foreign Ministry for comment.
Update 3/24/22 5:40 PM ET: This article has been updated with additional information and background.