It’s Victory Day in Moscow, but here in Vilnius, as in much of the rest of Europe, it’s a normal working day. Lithuania did away with the traditional celebration marking the triumph of Soviet forces over Nazism years ago; as outgoing President Dalia Grybauskaite said of the celebrations in 2015, “For Lithuanians, Poles and others in Central Europe the war did not end on [this day]. We suffered from a new occupation, a new dictatorship and new atrocities.”
Since Putin’s return to the Russian presidency in 2012, the Russian regime has utilized the Soviet Union’s World War II victory to reignite Russian patriotism. St. George’s ribbons, the orange and black accessories Russians pin to their clothes on May 9 in honor of the victory, have become as ubiquitous as the Russian flag. Along with the slogan “To Berlin!” they adorn bumpers, backpacks, and billboards all year long, invoking not only pride in the 1945 victory, but in Russia’s more recent foreign interventions.
Kyiv, for its part, is loathe to participate in this rewrite of history at its own expense, has renamed the holiday as the “Day of Victory over Nazism.” President-Elect Zelensky visited his grandfather’s grave in Kryvyi Rih and posted about it on his new Twitter account:
“At my grandfather Semyon Ivanovich Zelensky’s grave in Kryvyi Rih. He went through the entire war. Ukrainians’ contribution to victory was enormous, and no one has the right to privatize it. We remember those who died, and honor those who live,” writes Zelensky.
beyond victory day
This week, Ukrainians and Americans alike have discussed the involvement and influence of the United States in Kyiv. US Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch has been recalled from her post early because of a fabricated political scandal. But wait, there’s more! Republicans are accusing Joe Biden of corruption for encouraging the ouster of an ineffective prosecutor whose office had investigated the company where Biden’s son was a consultant. As Oliver Bullough explains for The Washington Post, these accusations are nonsense:
It isn’t true. The timeline doesn’t work. The investigation into Burisma, Hunter Biden’s employer, had ground to a halt long before the prosecutor was sacked. A subsequent probe into the company’s owner was opened because of a request from Ukrainian legislators, not because of prosecutorial initiative.
Further (and to this I add a hearty “hell yes!), Bullough writes that Ukraine needs more
Western money, Western support and sustained Western insistence that its rulers keep their promises to clean up their country.
What it does not need is underinformed dinosaurs wading into its sensitive political ecosystem to make points for domestic American consumption.
homework
Last week I wrote a piece for the Columbia Journalism Review on the similarities between Ukrainian and US media, and what American television might learn from Ukraine’s presidential election. Give it a read.
I started watching HBO’s Chernobyl last night. It is excruciating and horrifying. It ought to be required viewing, especially for westerners. Linda Kinstler wrote about it and two new books marking the thirtieth anniversary of the disaster for Longreads.