Allies prepare to mark D-Day’s 80th anniversary in shadow of Ukraine war  

Tourists visit the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France. Roughly 73,000 Allied forces died during the nearly three-month Battle of Normandy in 1944. (Lisa Bryant/VOA) Normandy, France, is preparing to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day on June 6, 2024. (Lisa Bryant/VOA) Reminders of D-Day are everywhere in Carentan-les-Marais, France, which endured a six-day battle in 1944 before it was liberated. (Lisa Bryant/VOA) The parents of Agnes Scelle, right, lived through the Normandy landings. Today she is focused on another war as she helps Ukrainian refugees like Kateryna Vorontsova, left, settle in in Carentan and surrounding villages. (Lisa Bryant/VOA) Brock Bierman is president of Ukraine Focus, a nongovernmental group based in Washington and Ukraine that is driving donated U.S. and European ambulances to Ukraine after the D-Day events. (Lisa Bryant/VOA)

Agnes Scelle grew up listening to her parents’ stories about life in occupied France, living near the Normandy town of Carentan-les-Marais. She heard of the knife pushed up against her father’s throat for trying to block a strategic river, of how German soldiers held her mother at gunpoint.