Ukraine issues demarche to foreign diplomats over Victory Day parade in Moscow

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry has issued a formal diplomatic protest to the countries whose leaders attended the Victory Day military parade in Moscow on May 9, marking the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany.

According to the ministry, the heads of diplomatic missions representing those countries were summoned to Kyiv, where a demarche was delivered to them.

First Deputy Foreign Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya stated that, given the full-scale war launched by Russia against Ukraine in 2022, Kyiv views the participation of foreign leaders in celebrations on Moscow’s Red Square as an unfriendly act. The ministry emphasized that their presence at the event “has nothing to do with honoring the memory of the victims and heroes of World War II.”

More than 20 foreign leaders, including Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, attended the May 9 parade in Moscow. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić were the only European heads of state or government to join Russian President Vladimir Putin at the celebrations.