The war in Ukraine shadowed the ceremonies in Normandy, a grim modern-day example of lives and cities that are again suffering through war in Europe. Ukraine's president was greeted with a standing ovation and cheers. Russia, a crucial World War II ally whose full-scale invasion of its smaller neighbor in 2022 set Europe on a new path of war, was not invited.
The commemorations for the more than 4,400 Allied dead on D-Day and many tens of thousands more, including French civilians, killed in the ensuing Battle of Normandy were tinged with fear that World War II lessons are fading. "There are things worth fighting for," said Walter Stitt, who fought in tanks and turns 100 in July, as he visited Omaha Beach this week. "Although I wish there was another way to do it than to try to kill each other.
" "We'll learn one of these days, but I won't be around for that," he said. U.S.
President Joe Biden directly linked Ukraine's fight for its young democracy to the battle to defeat Nazi Germany. "To surrender to bullies, to bow down to dictators is simply unthinkable," Biden said. "If we were to do that, it means we'd be forgetting what happened here on these hallowed beaches.
" As now-centenarian veterans revisited old memories and fallen comrades buried in Normandy graves, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's presence at the international D-Day commemoration fused World War II's awful past with the fraught present. The dead and wounded on both sides in Ukraine are estimated in the.