Russian Ambassador to Poland Pelted with Red Paint at VE Day Gathering

THE GUARDIAN: Police escort Sergey Andreev away after protesters prevent him laying wreath at Soviet cemetery in Warsaw

Russia’s ambassador to Poland has been pelted with red paint thrown at him by people protesting against the war in Ukraine as he went to lay flowers at the Soviet military cemetery in Warsaw on the anniversary of the allied victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.

Video footage released by Russian news agencies showed Sergey Andreev and several other men with paint on their clothes and faces surrounded by a crowd, some holding Ukrainian flags. In other videos of the incident circulating online, anti-war activists can be heard chanting “fascists” and “murderers”.

Andreev told the Russian news agency Tass that he and his team had not been seriously hurt in the incident. The protesters prevented the ambassador from laying flowers at the cemetery and Polish police escorted him away.

Russia’s foreign ministry responded to the incident by demanding Warsaw organise a new wreath-laying ceremony immediately and saying Poland should “ensure complete protection against any provocations”. » | Pjotr Sauer | Monday, May 9, 2022

The Queen Addresses the Nation on the 75th Anniversary of VE Day | LBC

How V-E Day Echoed Around the World

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE: After years of combat stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Middle East, rumors began to spread in spring 1945 that the German army was close to surrender. So hotly anticipated, this long-hoped-for event had been given a name before it became a reality: V-E Day, for Victory in Europe.

The term first appeared in The New York Times on Sept. 10, 1944, just over three months after the Allies took the beaches at Normandy and began their march inland. Nine days later, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered government agencies to begin making plans for the demobilization of the roughly three million civilians supporting the war effort. “The transition from war to peace should be carried forward rapidly,” Roosevelt said. “This is the time to do the planning, although the war — even in Europe — is not over.”

Over the next six months, the Allied forces squeezed the German army along two fronts back to its prewar borders, and by spring, the end of the war felt close at hand. On May 7, 1945, the news of Germany’s surrender spread quickly around the world. » | Friday, May 8, 2020

Britain Was Led by Churchill Then — It’s Led by a Churchill Tribute Act Now

THE GUARDIAN: With coronavirus lockdown subduing VE Day, contrasts with 75 years ago were many and varied

Somehow the quiet made it louder. By rights, marking the 75thanniversary of VE Day in the midst of a pandemic that has confined us to our homes – forcing us to keep our distance from one another, denying us the right to gather in crowds – should have muffled this commemoration. A celebration in private would surely feel like no celebration at all. Katherine Jenkins singing to an empty Albert Hall, streets with no street parties and the pubs all shut: how could that add up to anything other than a damp squib?

And yet Friday’s marking of the end of the second world war struck a deeper chord than it might, had it been just another sunny bank holiday. Yes, the usual rituals had to be suspended. There could be no wreath-laying at local memorials: instead, Prince Charles and Camilla laid two small wreaths on their own, in a crowd-less corner of Balmoral, watched by a lone piper. There could be no veterans’ parades, no reunions for those who had served, no grateful handshakes from the politicians: 102-year-old former staff sergeant Ernie Horsfall had to make do with a Zoom call from Boris Johnson. And there were limited opportunities for silliness: the Winston Churchill impersonators were all dressed up with nowhere to go, forced to perform their cigar-and-V-sign shtick online. » | Jonathan Freedland | Friday, May 8, 2020

VE Day Celebrations (1945)

VE Day Celebrations (1945). A Day that Shook the World. The war in Europe is declared over as celebrations break out across Britain.

A Day That Shook The World is the classic series that recalls the days of the 20th century that proved to be era-defining and pivotal in the course of modern history.