In accordance with Presidential Decree No. 1245/2000 of November 17, 2000, every year on June 22, our country observes the Day of Mourning and Remembrance for the Victims of War in Ukraine.
World War II (September 1, 1939 – September 2, 1945) was the bloodiest global conflict, during which, according to various estimates, between 50 and 85 million people lost their lives. It is remembered and commemorated throughout the world as a terrible tragedy. For 21 months of this war, the USSR and the Third Reich acted as allies, but on June 22, 1941, they entered into military confrontation. The war between the USSR and Germany and its allies was part of a global conflict that was broader in both time and geography—a fact that Soviet historiography often failed to mention in the past, and which Russian propaganda continues to overlook today.
For Ukraine, World War II was a national tragedy during which Ukrainians, deprived of their own statehood, were forced to fight for foreign imperial interests. Ukrainian soldiers participated in the defeat of Nazism both in the ranks of the Soviet Army (over 6 million) and as members of the UPA (over 100,000). For Ukraine, World War II was not limited to combat operations and the occupation of its present-day territory, but also included the participation of Ukrainians in combat operations across all theaters of war. Ukrainians and people of Ukrainian origin served in the military units of other countries: Poland, the United States, Canada, and France.
According to Ukrainian historians, Ukraine’s direct human losses in World War II amounted to 8–10 million people, with total demographic losses exceeding 13 million. Within a few months of fighting, the territory of Ukraine was completely conquered by Germany. Millions of people found themselves under occupation and, subsequently branded as “traitors,” bore the brunt of those hard times while the country gathered its strength.
World War II revealed to Ukrainians the destructive “power” of both totalitarian regimes. Everyone is familiar with the crimes committed by the Nazis in the occupied territories of Ukraine (the Holocaust, the executions of civilians, the burning of villages, etc.). At the same time, the numerous crimes of the communist regime on our soil were long kept silent (the executions of political prisoners in Western Ukraine in June–July 1941, the destruction of central Kyiv in the fall of 1941, the blowing up of the Dnipro Hydroelectric Power Plant, and the killing in Odesa of wounded Red Army soldiers who were thrown into the sea along with their ambulances, etc.).
The history of our nation teaches us to be acutely aware of the price of freedom, peace, and security. War is raging once again on our soil, unleashed by Russia. And once again, our defenders—men and women—are taking up arms to defend our borders, our freedom, and our own democratic choice.