A hope that we must keep alive

Eighty years ago, on 8 May 1945, the guns finally fell silent across Europe. Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender to the Allied powers marked the end of the bloodiest conflict the continent had ever known.

- SANTHOSH MATHEW

Eighty years ago, on 8 May 1945, the guns finally fell silent across Europe. Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender to the Allied powers marked the end of the bloodiest conflict the continent had ever known. For the Soviet Union, the price of victory was staggering - more than 26 million dead, a generation scorched by war, entire cities turned to ash. But the triumph was real, and it carried a profound message: that even amid the ruins of cruelty, unity could prevail.

Now, as Europe commemorates the 80th anniversary of Victory Day, we find ourselves once again in the uncomfortable presence of war - not in the same cities or under the same flags, but with the same heartbreaking toll. In a world that once promised "Never Again," the spectre of conflict looms ominously in South Asia, where another war - a war of attrition, ideology, and power - threatens to upend decades of uneasy peace.

"In times of peace, children bury their parents. In times of war, parents bury their children." These words, spoken by Winston Churchill, the wartime British Prime Minister, during the darkest days of the Second World War, continue to resonate with unbearable clarity today. As we look back at the defeat of fascism in Europe, we are reminded not only of the cost of war but also of the fragility of the peace that followed.