Russia states D-Day wasn’t decisive in ending World War Two
8861 Min Read
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, speaking at a weekly news conference in Moscow, offered a tribute to those who died on the western front of World War Two and said Moscow appreciated the Allied war effort.
But she also added that the Normandy landings on D-Day in 1944 did not play a decisive role in ending World War Two and that the Allied war effort should not be exaggerated.
Today is the 75th anniversary of D-Day, the largest seaborne invasion in history, and on Wednesday it was marked by a ceremony in Portsmouth in the UK attended by Queen Elizabeth and world leaders including Donald Trump and Angela Merkel.
The Soviet Union lost over 25 million lives in what it calls the Great Patriotic War, and Moscow under President Vladimir Putin has taken to marking victory in the war with a massive annual military parade on Red Square.
“As historians note, the Normandy landing did not have a decisive impact on the outcome of World War Two and the Great Patriotic War. It had already been pre-determined as a result of the Red Army’s victories, mainly at Stalingrad in late 1942 and Kursk in mid-1943” Zakharova told reporters.
