For Ukrainians, Russia's invasion is a 'continuation' of World War II

For Yuriy Savchuk, the director of Ukraine's War Museum, Russia's invasion has stark parallels with the fight for survival his country waged during World War II.

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As both Russia and Ukraine gear up to mark 80 years since they defeated Nazi Germany — fighting side-by-side as part of the Soviet Union — the divide over that shared legacy has deepened amid the current conflict, launched by Moscow in February 2022.

"World War I and II, and today's war — they're all conflicts we fought for the right to national existence, for the right of Ukrainians to establish themselves as a people," Savchuk, 60, told AFP at the museum in Kyiv.

Russia casts its invasion of Ukraine as a fight against "neo-Nazis" and has channelled its own WWII legacy to justify the war.

Those narratives are rejected in Kyiv, the West and by independent experts. Ukraine sees its fight as nothing short of a modern-day existential battle — one that has also accelerated a pushback against Moscow-led narratives over shared Soviet history.