Battle lines drawn against the West by foreign leaders

Hostilities between Britain and Russia may not have been so significant since the time of the Crimean War but we do have in common our fondness for reminding ourselves of the legacy of the Second World War.

- MARK ALMOND

State-sponsored commemorations of VE Day here or Victory Day there may grate on cynics’ nerves – but ordinary Brits, like the average Russian, have a genuinely fond folk memory of patriotic sacrifice and solidarity.

Of course, these sentiments are crudely misused by Kremlin propaganda. President Putin’s speech at the Victory Day parade in Red Square emphasised the “continuity” between his socalled Special Military Operation (invading Ukraine) and the war against Hitler’s invading forces after 1941. The Kremlin’s line that today’s Ukraine is controlled by neo-Nazis is a grotesque misrepresentation. Any neo-Nazism there is perversely reinforced by Russia’s brutal invasion.