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Western leaders join French veterans to mark 80th anniversary of D-Day

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Western leaders join French veterans to mark 80th anniversary of D-Day

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Western leaders are set to mark Thursday the 1944 Normandy landings in northern France during World War II that liberated Europe from Nazi occupation, while also remembering more than two years of war since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

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French President Emmanuel Macron Will host the President of the United States Joe Biden,British King Charles III and the Prime Minister of Canada Justin TrudeauRepresents the Allied soldiers who died in the war Login June 6, 1944, the beaches of Normandy.

They will reflect on the enormous sacrifices made by tens of thousands of soldiers on the beaches and cliffs of Normandy, far from home and under heavy German fire.

But the Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky The ceremony in Normandy with Western leaders will set the stage for how the talks will go. Ukraine Able to regain lost territory after the Russian attack.

No Russian officials were invited, underscoring Moscow’s pariah status in the West despite the Soviet Union’s decisive contribution to defeating the Nazis in World War II. Second World War.

There will be a separate national ceremony before most leaders hold an international ceremony at Omaha Beach in Normandy at 14:00 GMT, with Zelenskiy and the German chancellor also in attendance. Olaf Scholz.

The most respected guests will be the living veterans. About 200 are expected to attend, a decreasing number each year, most of whom will be at least 90 years old, some even over 100. This may be the last major anniversary they attend.

“If I could do it over again, I would go again. I’m glad we made the sacrifice so that others could have a good life,” John Mines, 99, one of the first soldiers on the Normandy landings, told AFP on the ferry crossing the English Channel to the battlefield.

“They are all heroes.”

(France 24 and AFP)

Follow FRANCE 24 for live coverage of all the day’s events.

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