This is what I told the President of France

“It is generally believed that this undermines the rules for which these buried here in Omaha Beach and in the cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer died. They died for something. They died for this order to be established, so that we can have a better world," Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General of the Army Mark Milley, said Monday at an American cemetery overlooking the coast in the northwestern French village of Colleville-sur -Mer.

The United States and its allies will continue to provide "significant" support to Ukraine out of respect for the legacy of the D-Day soldiers whose victory over the Nazis helped establish a new world order and a "better world," he said.

In an interview with The Associated Press overlooking Omaha Beach in Normandy, Milley said that Russia's war against Ukraine undermines the rules set by allied countries after the end of World War II. He spoke of the 78th anniversary of the Allied invasion of the beaches of France on D-Day, which led to the overthrow of the occupation of Nazi Germany.

I said approximately the same thing to French President Francois Hollande in Baku in May 2014 after the first Russian aggression against Ukraine.

I wrote about this in the article “This is what I told the President of France” on May 29, 2014. It seems that what was said then is even more consonant with the tragedy that continues today in Ukraine.

«Mr. President, you have invited  the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, at the ceremony of 70th anniversary of landing   union troops  in Normandy.

Whom will represent  the President Putin? The Russian people or all the peoples of the former USSR? It was clear  when France invited Putin to the 60th anniversary celebration. Then there was still some internal agreement in the CIS, where Russia usually presides. But today we are witnessing the Russian aggression against Georgia, Ukraine, threats against other former "fraternal republics."

 Mr. President, official statistics shows that on the eve of World War II, the number of  Russians in the Soviet Union was about 99 million, and other  nations totaled more than 70 million; but in recent years we have seen that  the Russians more and more privatize a victory, as contribution  of other peoples to it. They even stopped showing Soviet films, representing the victory as  an exclusive Russian conquest. Was Stalin  the Russian?  And majority in the leadership of the  USSR and the army was non-Russians.

One must clearly understand that the Azerbaijanis, Armenians, Georgians , Kazakhs and other peoples shed blood on the  Russian, and not on their own land. It can be asked what would happen to other areas if they were captured by the Germans. History has no subjunctive mood. It is a fact that millions of other nationalities were killed in the vast Russian  areas and other countries. And they have a right to be represented today in Normandy.

I'd really like  Putin to  look into the eyes of each president of former Soviet republics, and in particular , the President of Ukraine, after the offense in this country. I would like that  the Russians see and realized that those whom they are now trying to humiliate,  represent the peoples who sacrificed the lives of their soldiers in this war.»