‘Stop the war’ on WW2 veterans! Moscow scolds Kiev after Russian senator is refused entry into Ukraine to attend victory event

The Russian foreign ministry has urged Ukraine to “stop the war” on the memory of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War, after a Moscow official was refused permission to cross the border to take part in a celebratory ceremony.

The Great Patriotic War is a term used in the former Soviet Union to describe the USSR’s conflict with Nazi Germany from 1941 to 1945.

The Ukrainian authorities refused to allow Konstantin Kosachev, a member of Russia’s Federation Council, to enter the country for an event in Kharkov. The senator had planned to take part in the celebrations marking the city’s liberation from Nazi invaders on 23 August, in honor of his great-uncle, who died in the battle in 1943.

According to Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign ministry’s spokeswoman, Kiev’s reaction to the request to approve Kosachev’s visit to Kharkov was “discouraging.”

“In the very boorish and blasphemous manner typical of Ukrainian diplomacy in recent years, a Russian senator was denied entry to Ukraine,” she said, according to a statement posted on the ministry website.

“Moreover, in response to his respectable gesture – to commemorate the heroes of the Great Patriotic War – Kiev rolled out a standard list of its phantom theses, including the mythical ‘Russian aggression’ and the notorious ‘occupation.’”

Zakharova also claimed that many Ukrainian people had “retained moral compasses and honored the memory of the Soviet fighters,” thanking those who took part in the commemoration but urging the authorities to stop “the war on the memory of the real heroes of the Great Patriotic War and their descendants.”

Modern Ukraine has a complicated relationship with its Soviet past, a subject which becomes more complex in regards to the country’s participation in World War II. According to historian Vadim Erlikhman, the Soviets lost around 26.6 million people during the War, with Russians making up just over half of all fatalities, at 13.95 million, while Ukraine sustained an estimated 6.85 million deaths. Both losses devastated the local population, with Ukraine losing around 16.3% of its residents – more than Russia’s 12.7%.

However, despite the heroic role of Ukrainians in the war, the current government in Kiev has attempted to distance itself from its recent past, often calling its Soviet period an “occupation” by Moscow.

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