CNN
 — 

He’s believed to be the last surviving person from inside the room of the little red schoolhouse in Reims, France, where German officers agreed to end World War II in Europe.

Eighty years ago, Luciano “Louis” Graziano witnessed history when the Nazis surrendered.

But this former American soldier has no special plans for Thursday, when Victory in Europe, or VE Day, is commemorated, saying every day is special to him now.

At 102, Graziano vividly remembers what he saw that day, when it was unclear whether the Germans would sign the surrender document.

“I saw a lot of straight faces,” he told CNN. “Germans were at the table, there were the British and the French and all the other officers.”

One man not there was Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was using the schoolhouse as the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force.

“He wasn’t in the room, he didn’t want to be in the room in case they decided not to sign the surrender,” Graziano said, wearing a World War II veteran baseball cap.

But Eisenhower did want to see the defeated officers, so the young American soldier took them to him.

“He wouldn’t shake hands with them. They clicked their heels together and he dismissed them,” Graziano said of the meeting.

Born in East Aurora, New York to Italian immigrants, Graziano was the youngest of five children. He left school after the eighth grade to work as a mason to help support his family. His mother, sister and brother worked as hairstylists, and he decided to follow in their footsteps. But in 1943, weeks before his 20th birthday, he was drafted into the Army.

Graziano completed his military training at various bases across the United States, including Fort Dix, before being shipped to England on the Queen Mary.
On the ocean liner, he slept one night in a bunk but he chose to sleep on deck in a life vest because the quarters were so tight — he felt like he had a better chance of surviving an attack on deck.

After spending months in England working in facility operations, Graziano was in the third wave of the D-Day attack on Omaha Beach. “I drove the gasoline truck onto the beach and got up under the cliff,” he said. “The Germans were shooting down at us. I got my flamethrower out and shot up underneath … and got rid of that machine gun.”

Once in France, Graziano became the utilities foreman in the 102nd Infantry Field Artillery Battalion, meaning he oversaw American-occupied buildings, including the little red schoolhouse.

While in Reims, he met his future wife, Eula “Bobbie” Shaneyfelt, then a Staff Sergeant in the Women’s Army Corps. They married in Reims, honeymooned in Paris after the surrender, and eventually moved to Thomson, Georgia, where they raised their family.

In the decades since the end of World War II, Graziano has never gone back to France, “I’ve been asked to go many times and have my way paid,” he said. “But I don’t care to go on that ocean again.”

Graziano isn’t doing anything out of the ordinary to celebrate VE Day, though he has interviews lined up with news outlets around the world to share his story.

He plans to spend the day at home — fitting for a man whose thoughts were of the US even as he watched the European conflict end.

“I was happy to be in that room,” he said of the surrender. “I knew I was going to get to go home soon after that.”

CNN
 — 

Every year, the spring rain clouds over Moscow are carefully seeded with powerful chemicals to ensure clear skies for the annual May 9 Victory Day parade, Russia’s most important show of national pride.

This year, the threat from above comes not from rain showers, but squadrons of potentially lethal Ukrainian drones.

Already, in the days running up to this year’s parade on Red Square, multiple drone strikes have forced airspace closures at all four Moscow airports and heightened anxiety across the Russian capital.

Elsewhere, in distant Russian-annexed Crimea, local Victory Day parades have already been cancelled due to acute security concerns.

But the main event in Moscow is simply too important to abandon, so it is going ahead amid fraying nerves in the Kremlin.

And not without reason.

The often spectacular and colorful military display commemorates the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II and the millions of Russian lives lost in that conflict. More importantly perhaps for the Kremlin, it is a means of showcasing modern Russian firepower and rallying patriotic support for the strongman Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

This year’s 80th anniversary event is particularly significant to the Kremlin and, therefore, may prove a particularly tempting target for those who wish the Kremlin ill – not least Ukraine’s increasingly capable drone operators, whose own cities have suffered near-daily deadly Russian assaults from the air.

Tens of thousands of patriotic Russians are expected to line the streets, applauding as tanks and intercontinental ballistic missile launchers rumble past.

Putin has also invited an impressive array of foreign leaders, including Xi Jinping of China and Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in part to project a personal return to the world stage.

The leaders of Belarus, Venezuela, Cuba, Vietnam and the Republic of the Congo are also expected to attend, alongside presidents of several fellow former Soviet states.

Notably, the Kremlin says at least two European leaders, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, will attend the event. European Union officials have warned that Serbia’s bid to join the bloc may be jeopardized if he shows up.

Despite the large-scale gathering of world leaders, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky – who has criticized as insufficient a Russian call for a three-day ceasefire during the Victory Day commemorations – isn’t ruling out an attack either by his forces or by sympathizers inside Russia.

In a recent address, Zelensky – who says there must be a ceasefire of at least 30 days to allow for next steps to be prepared – warned that Kyiv “cannot be responsible for what happens” in Russia due to the ongoing conflict, and won’t be “playing games to create a pleasant atmosphere to allow for Putin’s exit from isolation on May 9.”

The words, which the Russian foreign ministry says amount to a direct Ukrainian threat, are overshadowing an event which would otherwise mark a culmination of significant wins for the Kremlin on the Ukrainian battlefield and, crucially, in international diplomacy.

China remains an important Russian backer and the high-profile presence of Xi at the Victory Day parade testifies to the strength of that bond.

But even more important, perhaps, is the dramatic, even startling, improvement in relations with the United States under Trump, whose administration has seemed determined to seek the restoration of friendly economic and diplomatic ties with Moscow, even at the risk of alienating traditional allies.

A recent US peace proposal, for example, suggested the Trump administration would formally recognize the Crimean peninsula – illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014 – as Russian territory, overturning years of stated US policy.

Likewise, Trump’s wavering military support for Ukraine, tariffs on close US allies and threats of annexing Canada and Greenland, have placed unprecedented strains on the Western alliance, while being met with joyful praise in Russia.

In a sign of the feverish optimism, Russian state-controlled media outlets have even speculated that Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State and Trump’s current acting national security adviser, would personally attend the May 9 Victory Day parade – alongside North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, no less – although the Kremlin officially refuses to confirm it is expecting either figure to attend. The White House has not confirmed that any US representative will be present.

But every silver lining, as they say, has a cloud. And things are not all going the Kremlin’s way.

The security threat hanging over the Victory Day parade in Moscow potentially foreshadows the looming challenges for the Kremlin in its ongoing war in Ukraine, which shows precious little sign of abating.

Latest Western estimates of Russian casualties, unconfirmed by the Kremlin, which has been customarily tight-lipped on the matter, are fast approaching an appalling one million people killed or injured, a figure that is only likely to increase if the fighting continues.

There are also ominous signs that the up-until-now resilient Russian economy may finally start to buckle as global crude oil prices, essential for Moscow’s coffers, continue to plunge amid fears of a global economic slowdown.

Meanwhile, worryingly for Moscow, a frustrated Trump, who before taking office bragged that he could end the Ukraine war quickly, has been confounded in that ambition and left contemplating renewed military support for Ukraine and fresh sanctions on Moscow.

It will very soon be Victory Day in Russia, but beyond the pomp and ceremony on Red Square, a Russian victory in Ukraine remains a distant prospect.

CNN
 — 

A three-day ceasefire in Ukraine that was unilaterally declared by Russian President Vladimir Putin last month has come into effect, as Russia prepares to mark the anniversary of its World War II Victory Day on Friday.

Russian state media agency Tass said the ceasefire began at midnight local time on Wednesday (5 p.m. ET Wednesday).

Within three hours, Ukraine’s air force had claimed Russia had launched guided bombs over Sumy in the north of Ukraine, the Reuters news agency reported, adding that it could not independently verify the claims.

A statement from the Kremlin last month said that Putin ordered “all military actions” in Ukraine to be suspended from midnight May 8 to midnight May 11 based on “humanitarian considerations.”

Kyiv rejected the short-term truce when it was first announced. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky called Putin’s announcement a “theatrical performance” and reiterated his country’s support for an earlier US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire which Russia has rejected.

The three-day period Putin picked for the ceasefire coincides with Russia’s World War II Victory Day commemorations, including a traditional military parade set for Friday, May 9.

The high-profile event is expected to be attended by the leaders of several countries that are friendly with Russia, including China’s Xi Jinping.

As in previous years, it is expected to be used by Putin and his government to peddle propaganda, which falsely frames Moscow’s current aggression against Ukraine as a fight against a “Nazi” regime in Kyiv.

As Russia prepares to mark the anniversary of the end of WWII, Ukrainian drones attacked Moscow for the second consecutive night overnight into Wednesday.

The attacks forced Russian authorities to temporarily halt air traffic at 13 airports – four in Moscow and nine further afield.

More drones were flying on Wednesday, with the Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin saying one drone that was heading to Moscow was shot down on Wednesday afternoon.

The shutting down of airports was potentially embarrassing for Moscow, as delegations from countries that have remained friendly to Russia were flying in to attend the parade on Friday.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Vietnam’s President To Lam and Belarussian leader Alexander Lukashenko are among the 29 leaders on the guestlist, according to Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov.

Ukraine has previously said it “cannot be responsible for what happens on the territory of the Russian Federation” because of the war.

Zelensky said his country would not be “playing games to create a pleasant atmosphere to allow for Putin’s exit from isolation on May 9.”

While Russia has rejected the US ceasefire proposal, the unilateral ceasefire around the Victory Day celebration was the second short-term truce Putin announced in less than a month.

In a surprise move over Easter, the Russia leader announced he instructed his troops to stop all military activity for some 30 hours. Ukraine accused Russia of breaching the truce, although it did say that fighting had slowed along some parts of the front lines.