May 8: Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation
Kyiv • UNN
Ukraine, together with the world, celebrates the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation, recalling the tragic lessons of the Second World War and honoring more than 8 million Ukrainians who died in the fight against Nazism.
Today, May 8, Ukraine, like the entire civilized world, celebrates the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation - this is the day of those who fought against Nazism, writes UNN.
The Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation is not about triumphs or parades. It is about the human cost of victory, about pain, about loss. These are the lessons of history that humanity has no right to forget.
For more than 10 years, Ukraine has joined the European tradition of celebrating victory - with respect for human dignity and without loud celebrations. For our state and people, the Second World War was a struggle for survival, their freedom and the right to their own identity.
On September 1, 1939, German troops first attacked Poland, and then began to attack Lviv and other Ukrainian cities. And on June 22, 1941, the territory of the entire Ukraine became the battlefield of large-scale hostilities between Germany and the USSR. Ukrainians were forced to fight in the ranks of foreign armies, and often - on both sides of the front.
However, victory in this war did not bring freedom to Ukraine. Instead, our state underwent new repressions, deportations, famine, destruction of churches and the Ukrainian cultural elite. The history of World War II is about feat, betrayal, and tragedy. About Nazis and communists who tore Ukraine apart in their own interests, with indifference to human life.
But even despite all this, Ukrainians made a huge contribution to the victory over Nazism. And the price of this victory is more than 8 million Ukrainian lives. The price of peace that never came.
Therefore, today is not about the cult of victory, but about memory. It is also about responsibility to the past, present and future.
Today, Ukrainians are fighting for their freedom again. And today the struggle is again being waged against a totalitarian ideology that is covered by a past victory in order to justify a new aggression.
Memory is not only about honoring, but about the courage to prevent terrible bloodshed again, due to someone's dictatorial ideas.