“German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron have rightly turned down Vladimir Putin’s invitation to go to Moscow on May 9 to mark the 70th anniversary of the Allies’ victory in Europe, and President [Barack] Obama may soon follow suit. …

“Instead of commemorating V-E Day in Moscow, they should go to Kiev [sic]. …

“Given the conflict that Russia has conducted against Ukraine, Western leaders could not sit in a reviewing stand on Red Square and watch parading Russian troops, whose comrades had so recently waged — and might continue to wage — war in eastern Ukraine, just 500 miles to the south.

“In recent years, [Vladimir] Putin has tried to arrogate for Russia the Soviet Union’s victory in World War II. That understandably angers Ukrainians and others in the post-Soviet space, whose parents and grandparents also fought, suffered and died in great numbers. …

“Kiev offers a logical alternative to Moscow for V-E Day. …And the events could be designed to remember the losses suffered by all the Soviet people. Ukrainian veterans groups could, for example, invite veterans from Russia and the other post-Soviet states. …”

“Marking the May 9 anniversary in Kiev would allow Obama, Merkel, Cameron and other leaders to pay homage and respect to the millions who fought so bravely and died in stopping Hitler’s war machine on the eastern front. But they could do so on their terms, not Putin’s.

“Gathering in the Ukrainian capital would also send a powerful message to the Russian populace of the isolation of their country’s leader because of his aggression against Ukraine. …”

– Former U.S. Ambassadors to Ukraine Steve Pifer, John Herbst and William Taylor, in a March 16 op-ed in the Los Angeles Times.