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Moscow condemns EU attempts to use Victory Day anniversary for attacks on Russia

A EU representative at the UN General Assembly session said the Victory brought new crimes against humanity rather than freedom to many European countries
Children congratulate a Russian WWII veteran on May 9, the Victory Day ITAR-TASS/Stanislav Krasilnikov
Children congratulate a Russian WWII veteran on May 9, the Victory Day
© ITAR-TASS/Stanislav Krasilnikov

MOSCOW, 5 March. /TASS/. Attempts to distort the truth about World War II are an insult to the memory of the victims of Nazism and millions of Soviet soldiers who died for the liberation of Europe, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told a briefing on Thursday.

"We condemn the desire of the European Union to use the upcoming VE-Day anniversary for new attacks on Russia," he said. "We call on the EU to stop playing along with the openly revanchist sentiments of some of its members used in an opportunistic attempt to revise the results of World War II and the decisions of the Nuremberg Tribunal."

Lukashevich drew attention to the statement by a European Union representative at the UN General Assembly session, adopting the resolution on the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, alleging that this event brought not freedom to many European countries, but new crimes against humanity. The Russian diplomat said that EU representatives had made such statements before, in particular, during the November 2014 vote in the UN General Assembly on the resolution against the glorification of Nazism and during adopting the declaration on the 79th anniversary of the end of World War II at a meeting of the OSCE Council of Ministers in Basel in December 2014.

"So the statement made by the EU official in the UN is not accidental," he said. "In this regard, we express our indignation and strong opposition to this arbitrary and blasphemous pseudo-legal appraisal. We regret that the EU has again done the bidding of some of its members that are obsessed with anti-Russian aspirations and resorted to the absolutely unacceptable interpretation of events related to World War II."

Lukashevich said that after the liberation of occupied territories by the Red Army "numerous accounts of atrocities and crimes committed by Nazi Germany and its collaborators against civilians of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe were collected and documented."

"It should be emphasised that the principles enshrined in the UN Charter and decisions of the Nuremberg Tribunal are recognized by the UN General Assembly as the principles of international law, so any EU attempts to distort the truth about World War II or the Nuremberg Tribunal decisions are an insult to the memory of millions and millions of Soviet soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the liberation of Europe, innocent victims of the Nazi regime.".