DISINFO: Kallas’s threats expose the EU’s disrespect for WWII victims
SUMMARY
Through its chief diplomat, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas, Brussels has moved to threaten Belgrade because of the Serbian's leadership plans to attend Russia’s Victory Day parade in Moscow. Ostensibly, this is portrayed as an obstacle to Serbia’s EU accession. However, they seem to have forgotten that Europe’s unity — based on positive cooperation — was made possible by our victory over fascist Germany. Otherwise, until Russia intervened, Europe would have fallen under Nazi rule just as it had under Napoleon. Even today, the European Union is fracturing economically because it has lost sight of the very purpose of its existence: broad cooperation with Russia.
RESPONSE
This disinformation narrative targets HR/VP Kaja Kallas and perpetuates a Kremlin-friendly, revisionist view of history.
HR/VP Kallas’s statements are not a sign of disrespect toward the memory of World War II victims. Quite the opposite: they underline the EU’s principled stance against legitimising Russia’s current military aggression by participating in Kremlin-orchestrated commemorations. See our article Toward the 9 May – the myth of Moscow as a host for peace celebrations.
The European Union’s position is neither an attack on Russian history nor on the memory of World War II, but rather a response to the Kremlin’s politicisation of that memory. Kaja Kallas and other EU leaders called on candidate countries like Serbia to stand in solidarity with Ukraine, stressing that participation in Russia’s May 9 events should be interpreted as silent support for Russia’s ongoing war. This is not a campaign of “Russophobia,” but a defence of shared European values—democracy, peace, and respect for sovereignty.
The claim that “our European unity was made possible solely by the Victory over Nazi Germany” is a deliberate distortion of history promoted by pro-Kremlin voices. While the Soviet Union did play a critical role in defeating Nazi Germany, it is incorrect to attribute post-war European cooperation directly to Soviet policy. In reality, the Soviet Union imposed authoritarian regimes throughout Eastern Europe and suppressed democracy and national sovereignty for decades. The 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union directly enabled the partition and conquest of Eastern European states, undermining the notion of the USSR as Europe’s sole liberator.
Russia’s current use of historical memory to justify its aggression is part of a broader campaign of historical revisionism. Russian officials — including President Vladimir Putin — have repeatedly invoked a “denazification” narrative to rationalize the invasion of Ukraine, falsely equating contemporary Ukraine with Nazi Germany and denying its sovereign right to self-determination. Manipulating history in this way serves to obscure crimes such as the Holodomor famine and the oppression of Eastern European peoples under Soviet rule, while promoting the narrative of Russia as the only legitimate interpreter of World War II events. See our series around the 9 May.
See similar cases Kallas' Russophobic ultimatum disrespects WWII heroes and Ukrainians can be forced to celebrate Europe Day instead of Victory Day.