Bringing Ukraine closer to Europe, Zelenskiy marks 1945 Nazi surrender

FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at a news conference at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, Poland, April 5, 2023. REUTERS/Aleksandra Szmigiel

KYIV (Reuters) -President Volodymyr Zelenskiy marked the anniversary of the surrender of Nazi Germany in World War Two by saying on Monday he would formalise a day of remembrance in Ukraine on May 8 when Western countries celebrate Europe's victory.

Speaking to the nation on a hill overlooking Kyiv, Zelenskiy said "the old evil" had returned, this time waged by a "modern Russia" pursuing the same goal as the Nazis of "enslavement and destruction" - but that they would not succeed.