At Normandy D-Day celebrations, echoes of Ukraine's looming fight
There are no Ukrainian troops present at this year's commemorations of the 1944 D-Day landings in Normandy, which launched the Allied invasion of Europe and led to the end of World War II
STE MARE EGLISE, Normandy, France -- (AP) — While U.S. military officers here caution against too direct a comparison between the 1944 D-Day landings and Ukraine's upcoming counteroffensive, the echoes of what Kyiv faces today are a dominant theme of this year's commemorations of the young U.S. soldiers who died on the Normandy beaches nearly 80 years ago.
For days the villages and towns surrounding Omaha and Utah beaches have held parades, memorial events, flyovers and parachute demonstrations to build up to the annual celebration of D-Day, the launch of Operation Overlord. The June 6, 1944 invasion marked the beginning of the Allies' massive ground invasion which would eventually lead to Germany’s surrender and the end of World War II in Europe.
The celebration is taking place as Ukraine prepares to launch its own counteroffensive against Russia — an impending fight for which many of those same allied forces have now provided billions of dollars in weapons and training to Kyiv's soldiers to best prepare them to win.
“There's echoes of that of course,” said Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Mark Milley. However, he cautioned against making a direct comparison to World War II's Normandy invasion, where more than 150,000 troops made landfall in Normandy in a 24-hour period and millions eventually fought across Europe to defeat the Nazis.
