Will cancel your passport if you travel to Russia: US warns American World War II veterans

For the second year in a row, American World War II veterans will not get to reunite with their Russian comrades in arms as the US has threatened them of cancelling their passports if they travel to Moscow for a Victory Day parade.

Russian ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov said, “For a second straight year, efforts by the US administration have disrupted a trip of US participants in the Second World War to the Victory Day parade. War veterans came under unprecedented pressure.”

“They were even threatened with the revocation of their passports, so they couldn’t fly to Russia and take part in the celebration of the 78th anniversary of the Great Victory,” Antonov said.

The ambassador said that the American veterans have waited so long for a trip to Moscow. “The US essentially prevented the dream of the veterans from coming true, preventing the veterans from another embrace, now in the center of Moscow,” he added.

Antonov said the decision of the US government is “insulting not only to veterans who fought against Nazism, but to all those who remember the sacred feat.”

‘Russia proud of American soldiers’ contribution’

The Russian ambassador to the US further said, “We want the American soldiers to know that Russia is proud of their contribution to the common victory.”

He said the “hostile” US policy will not undermine the spirit of camaraderie during the Great Patriotic War. “We consider it our duty to defend the truth about these heroes,” Antonov said.

Rising Russophobia in the US

The ambassador also said that there has been rising Russophobia in the US, which he claimed was being promoted by the government.

“Brazen attempts are being made to falsify the facts about WWII, the decisive contribution of the Red Army to the defeat of fascism is ignored, and the Soviet Union is excluded from the list of winners. At the same time, the role of the US and the UK is undeservedly advertised,” Antonov said.

‘Stop indulging the Nazis’

The ambassador said, “We call on the American authorities to change their minds and stop indulging the Nazis,” Antonov said. “We must be honest with the fallen heroes. Stop distorting history. Encouraging neo-Nazism and Russophobia is unacceptable.”

He called a “disgrace” and “mockery of history and common sense” that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is being celebrated around Europe even as the government in Kyiv glorifies the Nazi collaborators.

Victory day marks the anniversary of triumph over Nazi Germany in World War II. It is one of the most important public holidays in Russia and people commemorate the sacrifices made by the Soviet Union during what it called the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45.

With inputs from agencies

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