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President Zelensky of Ukraine has threatened to attack the Victory Day military parade in Moscow on May 9. This is disgraceful. And it is outrageous that western politicians have not said so.

Amidst an ongoing war in Ukraine, countries involved in the defeat of Nazi Germany are preparing to mark the end of World War II, or the Great Patriotic War, as it is known in Russia. His Majesty the King will lead commemorations in Britain on 8 May. Russia and other former Soviet Countries such as Kazakhstan mark the end of the war on 9 May. The history is complex but boils down to a disagreement on the formal timing of Germany’s signature of the Instrument of Surrender.

As this is the 80^th anniversary of the end of the war, the celebrations will be bigger than normal. A host of foreign dignitaries will be in Britain and in Russia, including the President Xi Jinping of China who’ll travel to Moscow.

Given the ongoing tussle over agreeing an end to the war in Ukraine, President Putin has announced a seventy two hour ceasefire covering the Victory Day period. That is to be welcomed.

Ukraine has been pressing for a more immediate 30 day unconditional ceasefire. However, as no concrete agreement has been reached on key sticking points, and with two separate and very different U.S. and European peace proposals in circulation, Russia has yet to agree to this.

I continue to hope for an end to this senseless war which has claimed over one million irrecoverable casualties already.

However, rather than taking up direct negotiations with Russia, something that the U.S. side has recommended and the Russian government has appeared receptive to, Zelensky has chosen instead to threaten an attack on Moscow on Victory Day. He said specifically:

“We are choosing precisely those sore points in Russia that will most prompt Moscow to diplomacy. Now they are worried that their parade is in question, and they are right to be worried.”

This is beyond contemptible. Zelensky claims that this threat is about pressuring Russia to agree to a diplomatic solution, but that is absurd. As Zelensky will well know, an attack on Moscow on Victory Day would lead to a sharp escalation of the war from the Russian side. It would destroy any hope of diplomacy.

For Russia and for other countries of the former Soviet Union, the 9 May commemoration is hugely symbolic and sacred, just as the 8 May commemoration is in Britain. The Soviet Union is thought to have suffered up to twenty seven million deaths during the war.

That’s an order of magnitude far in excess of casualties suffered by Britain, at around half a million people. I don’t say that to diminish British losses.

We honour the sacrifice of every civilian and member of service personnel who died during the war on May 8. My great uncle William Marrs was captured by the Japanese in Hong Kong and later died when a ship transporting him and 1800 other prisoners to hard labour camps in Japan was sunk off the coat of Korea on 1 October 1942. I remember his service to my country with pride tinged with sadness.

Russian people remember their losses with the same depths of emotion. When I lived in Moscow, I witnessed the Victory Day events each May and the pride and celebration among ordinary Russian people was identical to that I see among British people.

I also recall the Immortal Regiment, in which tens of thousands of citizens parade through Moscow holding photographs of their relatives who died during the war. When Nicholas Soames, grandson of Winston Churchill, visited Moscow ten years ago for the seventieth anniversary of the end of the war, the British Embassy posted an image on social media of him holding a photograph of his grandfather, our iconic wartime Prime Minister. Ahead of travelling to Moscow, Soames said, ‘We share in this Victory Day, as Britain and Russia stood together with our allies against the Nazis.’

Victory Day is a time for remembrance.

Zelensky has done a great discredit to his position as President of Ukraine and to the people of Ukraine. Around half of the Soviet losses took place in Ukraine at the hands of Nazi Germany.

But what concerns me as greatly is that western leaders have not distanced themselves from Zelensky’s comments. I have seen no words of rebuke from leaders in London, Berlin, Paris or Washington DC. Why have they not condemned Zelensky’s threat to attack a peaceful parade to mark the end of the twentieth century’s most devastating war? Indeed, since Zelensky’s outburst, Britain has announced, instead, that Ukrainian troops will take part in military commemorative parades in this country.

Had President Putin threatened to launch attacks on London on May 8, the British Army would be mobilising, and we’d be gearing up for World War III. Instead, Zelensky’s petulant outburst is greeted with silence.

How have we become so morally reduced that we have imbued Zelensky with such impunity that he can wage a war at our expense and take every step imaginable to prolong the war, with increasingly desperate and disgusting press stunts?

I hope that Zelensky is bluffing with his latest inflammatory threat. But what would we do if Ukraine did launch attacks on Moscow, on Victory Day? Would we condemn it?

I hope in that situation we would withdraw all support from Ukraine, pressure Zelensky to step down, ushering in long-overdue elections, while talking to Russia to prevent a quick escalation to World War III. I worry, however, that we would suck our teeth, say Zelensky was taken out of context, and find some way to blame Russia.