“No celebrations with aggressor”

Ukraine’s Ambassador to      Aus­t­ria, Oleksandr Shcher­­ba, regularly ap­pears on Austrian TV, gives commentaries to the local press, and writes articles. He recently made public in Facebook a letter to his Russian counterpart in Vienna, Sergey Nechayev. Mr. Shcherba writes that Ukrainian diplomats will be laying wreaths at the monument to liberator soldiers separately from the Russian embassy staff. “Un­for­tunately, in connection with the continuing Russian occupation of Ukrainian territory and a direct aggression against Ukraine by means of Russian weapons, under Russian colors, and by Russian citizens, we will be holding com­memorative events separately from Russian representatives,” the letter says. The Ukrainian ambassador also expressed a hope that “a time will come when Uk­rainian and Russian ambas­sadors will be laying flowers at the graves of their grandfathers in Europe together again.” “However, there will be a long way to reconciliation and forgiveness,” Shcherba said.

The Day asked Yevhen PEREBYINIS, director of the Information Policy Department at Uk­raine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to comment on this letter. “It is our fundamental position: there can be no Victory Day celebrations together with the aggressor. This is an example for other Ukrainian embassies how to mark VE Day.

“This will be a standard approach of all our diplomatic institutions abroad. I do not think this requires any special instructions, for it is an understandable and logical position. There can be no celebrations with an aggressor who has called into question the entire postwar system of security. As long as this aggression continues, any joint events with the Rus­sian side are out of the question,” Mr. Pe­rebyinis said.

Ihor YAKOVENKO, Russian journalist:

“Twenty five out of the 68 invited heads of state will come to Putin to mark the 70th anniversary of the Victory; 36.7 percent is not a bad result and, on the whole, a normal temperature – without details.

“But, with details taken into account, things are worse. There will be no heads of the US, the UK, France, and Germany. Instead, there will be those of North Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia, as well as Abkha­zia with South Ossetia plus the ‘DNR’ with the ‘LNR.’

“The triumph of a Moth, you know [“Moth” was Putin’s KGB alias. – Ed].

“But this has nothing to do with the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory. For example, I will drink to one of my grandfathers, Yury Pokryshkin, a young tank man killed in action near Koenigsberg, and to another grandfather, Viktor Yakovenko, who was bursting to be sent to the front from Stalin’s GULAG but was denied this.

“Moth’s attempt to privatize the Victory has failed.

“Which is good.”