PARIS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th June, 2019) National Rally leader Marine Le Pen said Thursday she regretted that Russia had not been invited to the D-Day commemorative ceremony in Normandy in northern France.
June 6 marks the day when the Allied forces descended on the beaches of Normandy in 1944, joining the Soviet Union in its fight against Nazi Germany.
"Today we are honoring the memory of young soldiers who fell for our liberty 75 years ago as well as those who were part of all the French Resistance [movements]. But it is regrettable that Russia is not taking part in commemorations despite having paid a heavy price," she tweeted.
Gerard Longuet, a senator from center-right The Republicans party and head of the France-Russia interparliamentary group, echoed Le Pen saying "this common victory should have advanced dialogue with Russia rather than driven a wedge" between them.
"The Russian people have greatly contributed to this victory, paying a price of 27 million lives in 1941-1945. We must pay tribute to the sacrifice that made possible the Allied operation in Western Europe," he was quoted as saying by the interparliamentary group.
Earlier on Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron received his US counterpart, Donald Trump, and over a dozen other world leaders in Normandy to commemorate the largest seaborne invasion in history. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said his country would be represented by a diplomat from its Paris embassy.
