President Donald Trump has officially proclaimed May 8 as a national day to celebrate victory in World War II, emphasizing the United States’ contribution as decisive – while completely ignoring the Soviet Union’s role and sacrifice in defeating Nazi Germany.
In his proclamation issued by the White House on Wednesday, Trump claimed that “without the sacrifice of our American soldiers, this war would not have been won, and our world today would look drastically different.”
“On this Victory Day for World War II, we celebrate the unmatched might, strength, and power of the American Armed Forces, and we commit to protecting our sacred birthright of liberty against all threats, foreign and domestic,” the US president wrote, emphasizing that “more than 250,000 Americans lost their lives” fighting for the “survival of Western civilization.”
Trump previously announced plans to designate November 11 as “Victory Day for World War I,” a move that would effectively rename Veterans Day – a federal holiday honoring all US military veterans. The White House later clarified that such declarations would not create new public holidays without congressional approval.
Trump’s push to “start celebrating our victories again” has drawn criticism from Russia and even some Allied nations, who accused him of distorting historical facts. General Lord Dannatt, former chief of the General Staff in the UK – which lost about 450,700 people in the war – called Trump’s remarks “extraordinary” and accused him of “rewriting history.”
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of his country’s Security Council, dismissed the remarks as “pretentious nonsense.”
“Our people gave 27 million lives of their sons and daughters for the sake of destroying damned fascism,” he wrote. “Victory Day is ours and it is on May 9. That’s how it was, is, and always will be!”
Russia is grateful to the US for its support during WWII, but the USSR would have defeated Nazi Germany even without the assistance – though “it would have been very difficult,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last week.
The Soviet Union received aid valued at around $200 billion in today’s terms through the Lend-Lease program – a US government initiative that provided allies with military supplies, equipment, food, and strategic raw materials. The assistance, however, was not free. Russia, as the USSR’s successor state, completed its financial obligations related to the Lend-Lease program only in 2006.
Nazi Germany officially surrendered to the Allied forces on May 8, 1945, following the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops. The capitulation took effect after midnight in Moscow. May 8 is observed as Victory in Europe Day, while Russia commemorates the occasion on May 9.
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