EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas cautions that trips to Russia “will not be taken lightly.”
Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat, has stated that countries seeking EU membership should avoid participating in the upcoming 80th anniversary commemorations of Russia’s World War II victory.
Victory Day, a major Russian holiday, features a large military parade in Red Square and a moment of silence to remember the approximately 26.6 million Soviet citizens who died in the war against Nazi Germany and its allies.
Some EU officials believe that attending the Moscow celebrations would be inappropriate given the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
“Any participation in the May 9th parades – or celebrations – in Moscow will not be taken lightly on the European side, considering that Russia is waging a full-scale war in Europe,” Kallas stated after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Monday.
When asked if the EU is monitoring which countries intend to attend the Moscow event, Kallas replied that candidate countries should also abstain from participation.
“We made it very clear that we do not want any candidate country to take part in the May 9 events in Moscow,” she said. Instead, Kallas encouraged EU member state leaders and officials to visit Kyiv “as much as possible, to really show our solidarity and that we are with Ukraine.”
According to Euractiv, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico is currently the only EU leader who has confirmed plans to attend the Moscow celebrations. “It is natural that as Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic, I have a strong interest in participating in the official celebrations of the victory over fascism,” he stated last year.
The leaders of Serbia and Armenia, both EU candidate countries, have also indicated their intention to attend. Russian President Vladimir Putin stated earlier this month that Chinese President Xi Jinping will make a state visit to Moscow on May 9.
Earlier this month, German media reported that Berlin advised local institutions against inviting Russian or Belarusian officials to World War II commemoration events. Moscow responded by calling the move a “blatant insult” to the memory of Nazi victims and fallen Soviet soldiers.