For Yuriy Savchuk, the director of Ukraine’s War Museum, Russia’s invasion has stark parallels with the fight for survival his country waged during World War II.
As both Russia and Ukraine gear up to mark 80 years since they defeated Nazi Germany – fighting side-by-side as part of the Soviet Union – the divide over that shared legacy has deepened amid the current conflict, launched by Moscow in February 2022.
“World War I and II, and today’s war – they’re all conflicts we fought for the right to national existence, for the right of Ukrainians to establish themselves as a people,” Savchuk, 60, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) at the museum in Kyiv.
Russia casts its invasion of Ukraine as a fight against “neo-Nazis” and has channeled its own World War II legacy to justify the war.
Those narratives are rejected in Kyiv, the West and by independent experts.
Ukraine sees its fight as nothing short of a modern-day existential battle – one that has also accelerated a pushback against Moscow-led narratives over shared Soviet history.
Kyiv will this year commemorate victory in World War II on May 8, the day it is marked in western Europe – having in 2023 moved away from celebrations on May 9, the date it has been marked in the Soviet Union and Russia.
The difference in dates stemmed from the time difference when Germany’s surrender order came into effect in 1945, but had become a symbolic dividing line in the divergence between how East and West marked their respective World War II histories.
In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin will preside over a huge parade of troops and military hardware, glorifying Russia’s role in defeating Nazi Germany.
The plans have drawn scorn in Kyiv.
“These people are not liberators of Europe, they are occupiers and war criminals,” the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.
‘Take away the memory’
The Kremlin uses the stories of some Ukrainian nationalists who fought against Russia during World War II – and their modern-day followers – to justify its claims that it is fighting to “de-Nazify” Ukraine.
Top among them is Stepan Bandera, a nationalist leader who allied with Nazi Germany and has since become a hero symbolizing the fight for Ukrainian independence.
The war-torn country’s Jewish community rejects Moscow’s claims about the current conflict.
“It’s Russian propaganda that they come here to denazify Ukraine. It’s a lie,” Ukraine’s chief rabbi, Moshe Azman, told AFP.
To counter Moscow’s narrative, Savchuk emphasizes Ukraine’s contribution to the victory against Nazism, rather than focusing on those who collaborated.
Around 8 million Ukrainians – 5 million civilians and 3 million soldiers – were killed in the war, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.
Some 7.5 million Ukrainians fought in the Soviet army, while approximately 135,000 Ukrainians took up arms alongside the Nazis, according to the museum’s researchers.
“We will not allow anyone to take away any part of this memory that we are proud of,” Savchuk said, standing in front of the wreckage of a Russian helicopter downed by Ukrainian forces.
Ukraine has also moved to recognize 1939 as the start date for the war – when Germany and the Soviet Union allied to carve up Poland – not 1941, as Russia sees it, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union.
In another symbolic move, the War Museum replaced a Soviet-era emblem on the country’s 62-meter (203.41-foot) Motherland Monument with the Ukrainian coat of arms.
Valentyn Peresypkin, a 51-year-old former journalist from Zaporizhzhia, a region partly occupied by Russian forces, showed the monument to his son.
“We have been living in a state of turbulence and stressful uncertainty for three years now. I told my son about World War II and the price paid for victory back then,” he told AFP.
‘Language of force’
Since Russia invaded, the museum has added exhibitions on the current conflict.
They include a replica of a basement where Ukrainians sheltered for weeks at the start of the war when Russian forces occupied swathes of the country, including towns close to Kyiv.
“This is the current historical task, for our future – to form and preserve our memory of the ongoing war, which is a continuation of World War II,” Savchuk said.
The museum’s underground shelters offer visitors shelter in the event of an air raid alert, a near-daily occurrence.
Despite his position, Savchuk said actions, not words, were needed to ensure history does not repeat itself.
“The slogan ‘Never Again!’ can only be effective if it is based on clear, concrete actions,” he told AFP.
“An enemy who is pointing a gun or a cannon or a tank at you understands only the language of force.”
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