80 years ago today, Allied forces from the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Canada stormed the beaches at Normandy.

This attack initiated Operation Overlord, the invasion of France. On D-Day, Allied forces suffered more than 15,000 casualties, including some 4,500 killed. By the time Overlord was finished, on August 30, this number would grow, with some 226,000 wounded and 55,000 killed. But the Allies had liberated France, and in the process captured 200,000 German troops, and killed or wounded another 200,000.

One of the untold stories about Operation Overlord is the role played by the Soviet Army in securing the Allied victory. Two major Soviet offensives were launched in support of Operation Overlord, designed to pin down German forces on the Eastern Front, where more than 60% of German troops were fighting), preventing the Germans from diverting forces to reinforce their troops in France. These two offensives—Bagration and Lvov-Sandomeirz—together killed 520,000 German troops, wounding another 300,000, while capturing more than 192,000, for a total of more than 1 million German casualties.

But the loss to the Soviets was grievous: nearly 250,000 dead, and another 800,000 wounded.

Today we celebrate the anniversary of the battle that began the campaign that liberated France and, ultimately, helped bring about the defeat of Nazi Germany.

But we must never forget the role the Soviet Army played in making this victory, and indeed the victory over Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich, possible. Without the sacrifice of the Soviet Army, the Allie’s invasion of France would have proven to be a much more costly campaign.

Which is why, on this anniversary, the failure of the successors to the great alliance that defeated Nazi Germany to invite representatives of the Russian Federation to mark this solemn occasion is particularly egregious.

The cemeteries that contain the remains of those American soldiers who gave their lives in the cause of freedom 80 years ago would be much larger than they already are without the similar massive sacrifice of life by the Russian people we once called friend and ally.

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