Russia, Poland Locked in Controversy Over World War II Commemorations
Commemorations have begun in Poland to mark the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II. The ceremonies began on the Westerplatte Peninsula near Gdansk in northern Poland, where a German battleship fired the first shots of the war on a small Polish military outpost on September 1, 1939. Leaders from across Europe have gathered in Gdansk to take part in the event. Standing at a Soviet-era memorial early this morning, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned about the danger of forgetting the war's lessons. "We meet here to remember who started this war, who was the perpetrator of this war, who was the executioner in this war, and who was the victim of this war and this aggression," he said.
In a newspaper interview on August 31, Putin called the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact "immoral." But he said Moscow had no choice but to sign the agreement to postpone war after Western powers concluded their own agreement with Germany. He said the 1938 Munich Agreement ended "all hope of creating a united front against fascism."
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