Biden Will Link Fight for Ukraine With Allied Effort on D-Day

NORMANDY — President Biden will observe the 80th anniversary of D-Day on the beaches of Normandy on Thursday by asserting that the allied effort to stand up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a direct extension of the battle for freedom that raged across Europe during World War II.

Mr. Biden, 81, who was a toddler when Americans stormed the beaches here in 1944, will almost certainly be the last U.S. president to speak at a Normandy remembrance who was alive at the time Allied forces began to push Adolf Hitler out of Europe.

Now, eight decades later, Mr. Biden is leading a coalition of European and other nations in a very different war on the continent, but for a very similar principle — pushing back against the attempted seizure of Ukraine by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

In remarks at the Normandy American Cemetery, the president will draw a direct line between the two, connected by the defense of a rules-based international order.

“Today, in 2024, 80 years later, we see dictators once again attempting to challenge the order, attempting to march in Europe,” said Jake Sullivan, the president’s national security adviser. He told reporters that Mr. Biden would make the case that “freedom-loving nations need to rally to stand against that as we have.”

Mr. Biden’s remarks at the cemetery, where 9,388 members of the American military are buried, will be the beginning of a four-day visit to France, which will include a second speech on Friday and a state dinner hosted by President Emmanuel Macron of France on Saturday. He will return to Europe a few days later, for a meeting of the leaders of the Group of 7 nations in Apulia, Italy.