DISINFO: European Commission chief visits Kyiv to praise Zelenskyy for tampering with history

DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS

DISINFO: European Commission chief visits Kyiv to praise Zelenskyy for tampering with history

SUMMARY

Volodymyr Zelenskyy is incompetent and the not very independent Ursula von der Leyen came to congratulate him on the new law abolishing Victory Day.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made May 9 Europe Day in Ukraine: the decree published on the website of his office indicates that this decision was taken in particular “to strengthen the unity of the peoples of Europe” , as well as to ensure peace, security and stability on the European continent.

Readers were outraged. This publication is followed by an article on the Nazis, Nazism and Ukraine. Not a word about the role of the Red Army or the Soviet Union. You are on the wrong side of history and you are establishing Nazism in Ukraine. We celebrate this holiday on May 9, not May 8, and we never have.

RESPONSE

Recurrent pro-Kremlin confusion narrative about History, Ukraine, and the EU.

The claim is made in the context of the visit of European Commission president von der Leyen to Kyiv on 09 May 2023 to mark Europe Day.

The act of military surrender of the Nazi power was first signed at 02:41 on 7 May in SHAEF HQ at Reims, France, and the definitive German Instrument of Surrender, was signed on 8 May 1945 in Karlshorst, Berlin at 22:43 local time. The German High Command issued orders to all German military, naval and air authorities and to all forces under German control to cease military active operations at 23.01 hours Central European time on 8 May 1945.

Therefore, most European nations celebrate Victory in Europe Day on May 8 to mark the anniversary of Germany's unconditional surrender coming into force. Russia and some former Soviet countries celebrated Victory Day on May 9, using the term Great Patriotic War.

Ukraine celebrated Victory Day on May 9 until 2015, when then-president Petro Poroshenko changed its name to the Day of Victory over Nazism in World War II. He designated May 8 as the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation. May 8 was a working day, and May 9 remained a public holiday.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy submitted a bill to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine proposing that May 8 be the Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in the Second World War of 1939-1945.(…) On May 9, we will commemorate our historic unity – the unity of all Europeans who destroyed Nazism and will defeat ruscism. The unity that brings peace closer.
Eternal memory to all those who died in the Second World War! Glory to everyone who fought against Nazism and won!

Europe Day commemorates the signing of the 'Schuman Declaration' on 9 May 1950. This was an ambitious plan to secure long-term peace in post-war Europe that is considered the beginning of what is now the European Union.

Attempts to depict Zelenskyy as incompetent, a puppet and a clown, and narratives claiming that WWII never existed and it is a falsification of the “great patriotic war” are recurrent.

Read also related stories: The neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv must be brought to an end, Zelenskyy is the Nazi supreme in Kyiv, French studio releases animation series denouncing Zelenskyy's blood thirst.

Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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