The European celebrations on Friday came in stark contrast to how millions of its citizens spilled onto the streets 75 years ago, waving flags, flashing victory signs and dancing in joy because the carnage on their continent had ended.

Street parties this year were banned in Britain. In France, President Emmanuel Macron laid a wreath at the Arc de Triomphe monument at the top of a largely deserted Champs-Elysees Avenue, with the countrys still under a strict lockdown until Monday.

A day earlier, Macron spoke to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, who had to cancel his own huge Victory Day parade that had been planned for Saturday in Moscow. Macron said the pandemic "makes the construction of peace and stability on the continent and in the rest of the world more necessary than ever," according to a statement.

With almost 26,000 confirmed virus deaths, France is among the world's top five hardest-hit nations. Britain, with more than 30,000 confirmed deaths, is second only to the US, where almost 76,000 people have died of the virus. Russia has reported only 1625 deaths, but infections are jumping by more than 10,000 each day. Experts believe all those figures - especially the Russian death toll - understate the true impact of coronavirus.

In Germany, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Chancellor Angela Merkel and the heads of the parliament and top court were to lay wreaths at the memorial to victims of war and violence in Berlin. The low-key ceremony replaces a bigger event with 1600 guests which Steinmeier had planned to lead outside the Reichstag parliament building in Berlin.

On the 75th anniversary of Nazi Germany's surrender to Allied forces in Europe in 1945, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the coronavirus pandemic was unleashing "a tsunami of hate and xenophobia, scapegoating and scare-mongering" and appealed for "an all-out effort to end hate speech globally".

Australian Associated Press