MOSCOW, June 3./TASS/. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko laments that in today’s France, people are beginning to forget the country’s shared history with Russia.

"We honor historical memory. For us, the story of the Normandie-Niemen regiment is a story that links two great nations in the fight against a common enemy. And we will honor this memory," he told TASS. Grushko took part in the ceremony of laying flowers at the site where pilots of the French Normandie-Niemen air force regiment were buried at the Vvedenskoye cemetery in Moscow.

"Unfortunately, in France today we see fewer and fewer of those forces that remember the glorious pages [of the common history with Russia]. Efforts to rewrite history are being actively undertaken, certain sentiments are being stirred up, which in no way facilitate Russian-French relations. For decades, these were among the fundamental factors for ensuring European security," the Russian diplomat said.

Grushko emphasized that Paris was at the forefront of the anti-Russian movement within NATO and the European Union. "We remember General [Charles] de Gaulle, and the contribution he made not only to the defeat of fascism, but also to the establishment of France as a sovereign subject of international law, which can speak on the international stage with its own voice. Today, the picture is quite different. They have done an about face, now they are anti-Gaullist. And today France is becoming the vanguard of the most Russophobic forces in NATO and the European Union. We are guided by this reality," he said.

Russia and France have no serious political dialogue at the moment, the senior diplomat added. "Nevertheless, this does not affect our attitude to those glorious pages of history, where we fought side by side, and against a common enemy. And, of course, the story of the Normandie-Niemen regiment is the history of true combat brotherhood," Grushko summed up.

Commemorative events of the Normandy invasion on June 6, 1944, which marked the opening of the second front in Western Europe, are held every five years with the participation of foreign leaders and veterans. In 2004, Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the ceremonies along with Tony Blair, Gerhard Schroder, Jacques Chirac, George W. Bush and eleven other world leaders.

Ceremonies commemorating the D-Day landing in Normandy are scheduled to be held in Normandy and Brittany between June 6 and 8.

The largest event will be held at Omaha Beach on June 6 and will be attended by 25 heads of state and government, including US President Joe Biden and UK King Charles III. Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has also been invited.