nam 22 uu 4500 10.17176/20230508-204521-0 DE-Verfassungsblog cr||||| 230508s2023||||xx#|||||o|||| ||| 0|eng|| 10.17176/20230508-204521-0 doi eng 342 23 Sagatienė, Dovilė Author aut (orcid)0000-0002-9842-667X World War 2 Memories in Lithuania and Ukraine - Political and Legal Symbolism of May 9 in the New Era of War Sagatienė, Dovilė Verfassungsblog 2023-05-08 Text txt rdacontent Computermedien c rdamedia Online-Ressource cr rdacarrier On May 8, 2023, Lithuania and Ukraine, along with other European countries, meet the annual anniversaries of the end of World War 2 in Europe in 1945. Meanwhile, Russia holds a national holiday tomorrow on May 9 to commemorate the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany, which is the most important holiday in Russia and became a cult practice for uniting Russians after 2000. The anniversary finds Ukraine in the midst of fighting off present-day Russian aggression. Lithuania finds itself worrying about its defense, dealing with memory incidents and among the biggest supporters of Ukraine. Russia, however, finds itself more isolated than ever and scaling back the celebration: According to Moscow because of expected ‘drone strikes’, but more likely due to ‘fear of popular protests.’ This blog entry takes stock of legal measures by two nations to countervail Russia’s decades-long mnemo-political aggressiveness. CC BY-SA 4.0 Lithuania Memory Laws Russian War against Ukraine Ukraine War Symbols Nekoliak, Andrii Author aut (orcid)0000-0002-3147-2866 Max Steinbeis Verfassungsblog gGmbH Verfassungsblog 2366-7044 https://verfassungsblog.de/world-war-2-memories-in-lithuania-and-ukraine/ raw object