US President Joe Biden has made an impassioned call for the defence of freedom and democracy at a ceremony in Normandy to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings.
He urged western powers to stay the course with Ukraine and not surrender to Russian tyranny.
At a joint commemoration with French President Emmanuel Macron and US veterans at the Normandy American Cemetery, President Biden said it was “simply unthinkable” to give in to Russian aggression, promising no let-up in support of Ukraine.
He urged western and NATO allies to recapture the spirit of D-Day and work together at a time when he said democracy was under greater threat than at any time since the end of World War II.
“Isolationism was not the answer 80 years ago and is not the answer today,” President Biden said in his speech.
On 6 June 1944, more than 150,000 Allied soldiers invaded France by sea and air to drive out the forces of Nazi Germany, coming ashore at five beaches codenamed Omaha, Juno, Sword, Utah and Gold, or dropping from the sky.
With the numbers of veterans, many aged 100 or more, fast dwindling, this is likely to be the last major ceremony in Normandy honouring them in their presence.
President Biden said it was the highest honour to salute the assembled US veterans, turning away from the podium to tell them: “God love ya”.
“The men who fought here became heroes,” he added. “They knew beyond any doubt there are things that are worth fighting and dying for.”
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With war raging in Ukraine on Europe’s borders, the anniversary of this turning point in World War II carries special resonance.
It takes place in a year of many elections, including for the European Parliament this week and in the United States in November.
Critics fear former president Donald Trump, who will go head-to-head with President Biden in the election, will reduce US support for Ukraine.
Speaking at a British ceremony in Ver-sur-Mer, Britain’s King Charles, in full military uniform, also urged greater international collaboration to fight for peace.
“We recall the lesson that comes to us again and again across the decades: free nations must stand together to oppose tyranny,” he said, as he spoke in both French and English.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and many others are also taking part in the day of tributes.
But Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022, beginning Europe’s biggest armed conflict since World War II, was not invited.
Leaders are set to adopt a declaration saying democracy is once more under threat in Europe and promising to defend freedom and democracy.
Some 200 veterans, most of them American or British, are taking part in ceremonies throughout the day on windswept beaches that still bear the scars of the fighting that erupted on D-Day, history’s largest amphibious invasion.
Thousands of service personnel from Britain, the United States, Canada and other nations were killed, as well as their German enemies.
At the US ceremony in Colleville-sur-Mer, where row after row of white marble crosses – some unmarked – show the toll the invasion took on allied forces, President Macron awarded the Legion d’Honneur to US veterans.
Many who received France’s highest honour were in wheelchairs, wearing caps that read “WWII veteran”.
“You are back here today at home, if I may say,” President Macron told American veterans in English, saying France would not forget their sacrifice.
Underlining their often frail health, the US Embassy said the last surviving Native American veteran was gravely ill.
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At Omaha Beach, the largest of the D-Day landing areas, where about 2,400 US servicemen lost their lives on 6 June 1944, more than 20 heads of state and government are due to attend an international ceremony later today.
Earlier in the day, as the sun rose in Arromanches-les-Bains, one of the beaches where Allied troops came ashore 80 years ago, small crowds watched a collection of World War II jeeps and an amphibious vehicle coming ashore carrying a bagpiper playing a lament.
