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United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and foreign ministers from nine countries in the region issued a joint statement on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II.
The ministers stressed their respect for the soldiers who fought to defeat Nazi Germany and end the Holocaust, but at the same time noted that May 1945 did not mean freedom for all of Europe.
“The central and eastern parts of the continent have remained under communist regimes for almost 50 years. Using overwhelming military force, repression and ideological control, the Soviet Union illegally occupied and annexed the Baltic states and kept other enslaved nations in its grip. iron, “the statement said.
“For decades, many Europeans on the eastern and central continents have sacrificed their lives in the fight for freedom, millions have been deprived of their fundamental rights and freedoms, tortured and forcibly relocated. The societies behind the Iron Curtain have been desperately seeking a path to democracy and independence, “the ministers said.
“Today, we are working together to build a strong and free Europe, with human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The future must be based on the facts of history and justice for the victims of totalitarian regimes. We are ready for a dialogue with all those who are committed to these principles. Manipulating the events in history that led to World War II and the subsequent division of Europe is a deplorable attempt to falsify history, “the statement says.
The declaration was signed together with Mr. Pompeo by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary. These countries form the so-called Ninth of Bucharest and often coordinate their positions within NATO.
L. Linkevičius told BNS that the statement was intended to “repel the propaganda attacks related to World War II and the distortions of history” carried out by Russia.
According to the minister, justifying the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, by which the Soviets divided Eastern Europe with the Nazis, Russia “may be trying to justify today’s aggression, redrawing the map” by occupying the territories of Sakartwell and Ukraine .
“Military foreign policy tries to justify itself by certain parallels, commenting on historical events,” said L. Linkevičius.
On Thursday, the Lithuanian Seimas also passed a resolution condemning Russia’s historical revisionism, and the presidents of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia condemned Russia’s attempts to falsify history by undermining Moscow’s role in the outbreak of World War II.
In a joint statement on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, the leaders of the Baltic states warned that the distortion of history was jeopardizing the order of a rules-based world.
The document adopted by Seimas on Thursday indicates that Russia seeks to accuse the countries of Central and Eastern Europe of contributing to the start of World War II.
In it, Parliament “condemns the historical revisionism carried out by the Federation and the spread of disinformation that undermines the negative role of the Soviet Union as one of the main initiators of World War II.”
The resolution says that Russia not only seeks to blame the victims of the aggression, but also to justify the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and its secret protocols.
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