On 9 May, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine invited  several heads of diplomatic missions accredited in Ukraine whose high-ranking state officials were present at the military parade in Moscow. A demarche was delivered to the diplomats of respective countries.

The First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Sergiy Kyslytsya emphasized that, during Russia’s ongoing war of aggression, mass killings of Ukrainians, strikes on civilian infrastructure, war crimes and crimes against humanity, the presence of foreign high-rank officials at a parade hosted by the aggressor state is regarded by Ukraine as an unfriendly step.

The Ukrainian side underscored the significant contribution of the Ukrainian people, together with other nations of the anti-Hitler coalition and the former USSR, to the victory over Nazism 80 years ago. Ukraine will not allow Russia to hijack the memory of the past, appropriate the collective victory, or diminish the decisive role played by the Ukrainian people.

Sergiy Kyslytsya recalled that Russia continues to reject  efforts to restore peace and has yet to accept the U.S. proposal for a full and unconditional 30-day ceasefire, which Ukraine agreed to back on  March 11. He stressed that Russia has even failed to comply with its own so-called “parade ceasefire,” continuing its daily assaults along the entire front line.

Presence of high-rank officials of certain states in the Kremlin-organized events have nothing in common with honoring the memory of the victims and heroes of World War II. On the contrary, it constitutes a desecration of that memory and an  endorsement of the current aggressiin in Europe, Russia’s ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine.