Biden and Macron Use D-Day to Rally Support for Ukraine

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Facts

  • Veterans and world leaders on Thursday commemorated the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings in France, the 1944 effort in which 150K Allied troops invaded France by land and sea in order to drive out the occupying Nazi forces.1
  • US Pres. Joe Biden and French counterpart Emmanuel Macron both honored the soldiers who took in the World War II offensive in speeches at Omaha Beach. Both also used their addresses to liken the Allied war effort to Ukraine's current war with Russia.2
  • In a speech where he described Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin as a 'tyrant bent on domination,' Biden said: 'To surrender to bullies, to bow down to dictators, is simply unthinkable. If we were to do that, it means we’d be forgetting what happened here on these hallowed beaches.'3
  • Meanwhile, Macron said: 'With the return of war on European soil... and in the face of those who want to change borders, let us be worthy of those who landed here.' He added: 'We are there and we will not fail you.'2
  • Macron also announced that France will begin selling its Mirage fighter jet to Ukraine, stating this will 'allow Ukraine to protect its soil, its airspace' against Russian attacks.4
  • In the meantime, Russia — who lost at least 25M men fighting the Nazis under Soviet rule — did not receive an invitation to the event in France. Maria Zakharova, Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, accused the West of trying to cover up Soviet contributions to the war.5

Sources: 1Al Jazeera, 2POLITICO, 3Guardian, 4Associated Press and 5MSN.

Narratives

  • Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by POLITICO. US Pres. Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron were right to invoke the memory of the Allied defeat of totalitarianism in World War II. Ukraine is fighting the same fight and it needed to be made clear that they will not face Russia alone.
  • Pro-Russia narrative, as provided by Reuters. Arrogant Western elites are trying to erase the Soviet contributions to World War II from the history books. D-Day would not have been possible without the sacrifice of at least 25M Russian troops whose army went on to hand several defeats to the Germans before that fateful day in 1944.

Predictions