Russia says D-Day's significance 'should not be exaggerated'

[Ice]

Russia says the D-Day invasion "did not have a decisive impact" on World War II and its significance "should not be exaggerated".

Maria Zakhorova, a spokeswoman for Russia's ministry of foreign affairs, spoke as ceremonies were taking place to mark its 75th anniversary.

"It should of course not be exaggerated," she said. "And especially not at the same time as diminishing the Soviet Union's titanic efforts, without which this victory simply would not have happened."

The Soviet Union lost over 25 million lives in what it calls the Great Patriotic War, and Moscow under President Vladimir Putin has taken to marking victory in the war with a massive annual military parade on Red Square.

"As historians note, the Normandy landing did not have a decisive impact on the outcome of World War Two and the Great Patriotic War.

"It had already been pre-determined as a result of the Red Army's victories, mainly at Stalingrad (in late 1942) and Kursk (in mid-1943)," Zakharova told reporters.

Zakhavora's words did include a tribute to those who lost their lives on the Western Front and said Moscow appreciated the effort.

The D-Day invasion was the largest seaborne invasion in history that was the beginning of the end of Nazi Germany's occupation of western Europe.

Moscow, which had been fighting German forces in the east for almost three years by the time of D-Day, and gradually pushing them back from early 1943, had been urging Britain's Winston Churchill to open a second front as far back as August 1942.



Zakhorova's statement follows an article written by Sergey Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, in Russia's International Affairs magazine. Lavrov said that the D-Day operations are part of "pseudo-historical theories" introduced to the "Western education system" that "belittle" the efforts of the Soviet Union during World War II.


@mfa_russia
#Lavrov: It was the peoples of the #SovietUnion who broke the backbone of the Third Reich. That is a fact.
Read the full article: http://www.mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/...ent/id/3667595 … #USSR #Russia #Germany #US #France #UK #WW2 #WWII #Europe #history #books #reading #Italy #Japan #victory #truth

[Lazio]

Without shekkels from USA and intel service from the Brits, Soviet Union would suffer much more than they already did from Germans. I'm pretty sure that without the donations from USA both Great Britain and the soviets would never stop the Germans.

[ixulescu]

Stalin was wailing for a second front in France since the day USSR was invaded.
It wasn't important, sure..

[Lazio]

[Harkonnen]

Well without D-Day (American forces in general) The Red Army would have plowed through most of Europe (likely all of it with exception of Britain and perhaps Finland ). So even if American forces would not have had joined action, and indeed Red Army could have dealt with Third Reich by themselves, that really does not touch the significance of D-Day what comes to Big Picture of today.

[Lazio]

indeed Red Army could have dealt with Third Reich by themselves

Soviet forces was a meme.






Without USA aid, it would be a blitzkrieg after another all the way to Siberia if it was necessary.

[Slavic Italian]

Zakhorova should have kept her mouth shut.

[Slavic Italian]

It's this simple. The Anglo Americans liberated West Europe. The Slavs Eastern Europe. In reality nobody was liberated. Europe was held hostage for half a century.

[Westbrook]

"It should of course not be exaggerated," she said. "And especially not at the same time as diminishing the Soviet Union's titanic efforts, without which this victory simply would not have happened."

I had no idea "titanic efforts" was Russian for cold weather, German oil shortage, and mountains of resources from the west.

[Cumansky]

Without shekkels from USA and intel service from the Brits, Soviet Union would suffer much more than they already did from Germans. I'm pretty sure that without the donations from USA both Great Britain and the soviets would never stop the Germans.

We don't need Russians for that, my Uncles took care of Germans in Montecassino May 18 1944.

That why German Mediterranean bitch niggas have to live in Brazil now, alie?