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The legacy of the 1945 victory must be peace in Ukraine
As Britain marks 80 years since defeating fascism, it finds itself in a proxy war against Russia over Ukraine — DANIEL POWELL examines Churchill’s secret plan to attack our Soviet allies in 1945 and traces how Nato expansion, a Western-backed coup and neo-nazi activism contributed to todays' devastating conflict
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AS GUNS fell silent and peace dawned across Europe in May 1945 with the final defeat of Hitler, a top secret document laid on Churchill’s desk — a plan for British and US forces in Germany to re-arm their former enemy, and jointly attack the front line held by their former Soviet allies. “The date for the opening of hostilities is July 1 1945” — four days before a general election.
The aptly named Operation Unthinkable concluded the Red Army could not be routed, and was shelved by Attlee’s Labour after a landslide win as the nation entered five decades of cold war. Declassified in 1998, the document echoes a common lament of German officers in British captivity: their two nations should not be in conflict, but together fighting the real enemy — the USSR.
Now, as Britain commemorates VE Day, the unthinkable has come to pass: the nation is in a de facto state of war with Russia, over the fate of its neighbour Ukraine — a catastrophic conflict causing millions displaced, hundreds of thousands killed, and the world closer than ever to nuclear war. With some British public services now bracing for cuts of up to 11 per cent to continue funding militarism in Ukraine, remembrance of the sacrifices made for VE Day are worthy of reflection, and asking a simple question — how did it come to this?
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In the first of two articles, DANIEL POWELL investigates the causal aspects of the Russo-Ukrainian war as Britain commemorates 80 years since VE Day
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