French organizers have invited Russian representatives to a ceremony in recognition of the 80th anniversary of the World War II D-Day landings in Normandy.
Numerous world leaders — including U.S. President Joe Biden — also made the guest list for the early June celebration.
But guess who didn’t? Russian President Vladimir Putin, on account of his “war of aggression” in Ukraine, event organizers said.
“Given the circumstances, President Putin will not be invited to take part in the commemorations of the Normandy landings,” they said according to the French newswire AFP.
A Russian delegation, however, was invited, though organizers were not specific about who precisely would be among the Russian invitees. The ceremony will honor “those who stood up, those who suffered, and those who fought and liberated,” according to organizers.
In June 1944, allied troops stormed the German-held beaches in Normandy at the beginning of a land invasion of continental Europe which ended with victory over the Nazis in 1945. The Soviet Union fought Adolf Hitler’s forces on the eastern front for years, gradually pushing them back before also reaching Berlin.
It’s not the first time Putin has been snubbed by a similar event. He was not invited to the 75th anniversary of D-Day in 2019, where figures including Theresa May, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles, Angela Merkel and Donald Trump were in attendance.
At the time, Putin made it known that he didn’t care. Honest.
“Why should they always invite me everywhere? What am I, an operetta general? I’ve got enough to do here, it’s absolutely not a problem,” he told news agencies, according to Le Figaro.
The Russian president was, however, invited to the 70th anniversary commemoration of D-Day in 2014, despite his illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula a few months earlier.
“We can have differences with Vladimir Putin, but I don’t forget and will never forget that the Russian people gave millions of lives” during World War II, said former French President François Hollande, who had extended the invitation to Putin in 2014.
“Historically, France has always invited countries whose contingents landed in Normandy to take part in the ceremony. In the past, the invitation has also been extended to the Russian Federation” the organizers said Tuesday.