In Kyiv, the Flame of Glory was lit to mark the Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in World War II, and the exhibition ‘Our Victory’ was opened.
The flame lighting ceremony took place as part of the opening of the banner exhibition ‘Our Victory’, a project by the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in World War II, a Ukrinform correspondent reports.
“The cost of victory in World War II is incomprehensible to Ukrainians. Eight million of our fellow citizens perished. About seven million Ukrainians were mobilized during the war into the Red Army. Every second of them died. Of those who survived, every second was left disabled. One hundred thousand fighters of the UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army) took part in the war. Ukrainians also fought in the military formations of other countries – Poland, the United States, Canada, France. In total, World War II claimed the lives of 50 to 85 million people worldwide. This was a colossal global human catastrophe,” said Minister of Culture and Strategic Communications Mykola Tochytsky at the opening ceremony.
He emphasized that at the state level, Victory Day in the former Soviet Union was not officially celebrated until 1965, as there were still living witnesses of both the horrific events and the crimes of Soviet power. For example, the Soviet regime deported up to half a million residents from the western regions of Ukraine to remote parts of the USSR, 700,000 ethnic Ukrainians were forcibly relocated under Soviet-Polish agreements, and 200,000 Crimean Tatars were accused of collaboration with the Nazis and deported from Crimea to Central Asia.
These and other testimonies to Ukraine’s losses are presented in the ‘Our Victory’ banner exhibition on the Memory Alley near the Museum of the History of Ukraine in World War II.
“The historical experience of generations — participants, veterans, children of war — restrained even the Soviet regime from staging mass celebrations. Today, that war generation is nearly gone. The youngest WWII veteran would now be at least 95. The loss of their memories, their passing, must not be replaced by militarist falsifications, authoritarian narratives, myths and stereotypes that glorify war rather than honor the victors,” Tochytsky added.
At the event, Professor Oleksandr Lysenko, a corresponding member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, stated that the exhibition honors the memory of the fallen, the civilian victims of World War II, and the residents of Ukraine killed during the Holocaust. It presents a new perspective on the history of the war.
“This was a war against two totalitarian regimes — Nazi and Soviet. If we attempt to come to terms with Nazi totalitarianism and occupation, then we must also reckon with the communist past and the crimes of that regime, which also sacrificed millions of Ukrainian lives. We must find that golden intersection of history where every political nation gains awareness of its historical mission and its right to build a national state,” Lysenko said.
During the event, for the first time in several years, the Flame of Glory was lit in honor of the Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism and to commemorate the fallen.
As Ukrinform reported, in 2023 the Verkhovna Rada passed the law “On the Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in World War II 1939–1945”, officially designating May 8 as the day Ukraine commemorates victory over Nazism and remembers those who died in the war. This date will now also be a public holiday once martial law in Ukraine ends.
Source: Flame of Glory lit in Kyiv to mark Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism
