By Nina Bachkatov
Eighty years after the end of the Second World War, this year’s Victory Day commemorations were marked less by shared remembrance than by sharp geopolitical fractures. While honouring the millions who perished remains a moral imperative, the celebrations of May 2025 unfolded under the shadow of a world order in flux — and, some argue, in retreat.
Against the backdrop of a third year of war in Ukraine, the V-Day events served more to highlight divisions than to evoke unity. Former allies now face each other as strategic adversaries; familiar institutions appear strained, and proposals for a post-WWII-style settlement — one that might replace the fraying “rules-based international order” — remain conspicuously absent.
Continue reading “V-Day 80: Ruptures More Than Unity”