October 26, 2014
October 28, 2014 will be celebrated as the 70th anniversary of the expulsion of Nazi invaders from Ukraine.
During the years of the Second World War Ukraine was in the epicenter of the ruthless battles. Historians account for about three million of soviet servicemen and close to 1.4 prisoners of war to have perished during the military operations on the Ukrainian territory. About 3.9 million people lost their lives on the occupied territory of Ukraine – every 6th citizen. More than 2 million Ukrainians were deported to the labor camps in Germany. More than 700 towns and 28000 villages were completely or partially destroyed, close to 10 million people left homeless, more than 16000 industrial units ruined.
We relish the tributes to the servicemen who perished on the battlefields while freeing Ukraine, and also to the civilians who suffered from the actions of the Nazi invaders. Ukraine will always remember those who gave their lives protecting and liberating it throughout the years of the invasion.
The memories of the brutalities of the Nazi occupation, when the part of the country again got occupied by foreign invaders, are yet to be erased from the memory of Ukrainian people. And yet again Ukrainian people were up and armed protecting their freedom, independence and territorial integrity. The blood was shed yet again.
The cynicism of the current situation is in the fact that the Ukrainian land is being invaded by the armed Russia, people of which along with other nations of the erstwhile USSR fought together with Ukrainians against the Nazi invasion.
Violating the basic principles of international law, Budapest memorandum on guaranteeing the territorial integrity to Ukraine on surrendering it’s nuclear weapons, to which Russia was a signatory, Russian regular army units occupied the Crimea autonomous republic, invaded eastern Ukraine and keep rendering support to terrorists, who waged the war against Ukrainian state and Ukrainian people. As such, Russia opted for the course, which 70 years ago was opposed to and condemned by the civilized world.
Russian aggressive politics today supported by the overinflated levels of ultra-nationalistic and a chauvinistic sentiment of Russians got bigger than the Ukraine issue and is now taken by the international community as a threat to the world peace and security.
Ukraine hope that the events of the 70 years’ past, and the memories for the millions who perished in the Second world war as well as thousands of victims of the ongoing aggressive Russian politics should prompt the Russian Federation leaders to take realistic actions in order to facilitate the expulsion of the army from the occupied territories, cease fire and resolving the situation in Donbas, Crimea with respect to the territorial integrity, sovereignty and immunity of the internationally accepted Ukraine borders.