On 8 May, Ukraine honours the memory of those who perished in the Second World War and everyone whose lives were shattered by the war. This is a day not for celebration, but for remembrance — of millions of people killed on the front lines, in concentration camps, during occupations, deportations, and mass repressions.

For Ukraine, the Second World War was not just a war between two armies. Our lands became a clash point between two totalitarian regimes — the Nazi and the Soviet. Ukrainians fought as part of various armies of the Anti-Hitler Coalition, in the underground, and in resistance movements, while the civilian population endured occupation, the Holocaust, mass executions, and deportations.

Crimea also became a place of great tragedy. During the Nazi occupation of the peninsula, the Krymchak community and a significant part of the Jewish community were almost entirely exterminated. And on 18 May 1944, the Soviet regime carried out the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people — one of the most large-scale crimes against an Indigenous peoples of Ukraine. Thousands of people perished en route and in places of exile solely due to their origin.

Today, 81 years after the end of the Second World War, Ukraine is again resisting aggression, occupation, and attempts to destroy our identity. Russia, hiding behind the myth of “victory”, has turned the memory of the war into a tool of propaganda and justification for new crimes — particularly in temporarily occupied Crimea.

The memory of the Second World War reminds us: impunity breeds new evil, and peace is impossible without freedom and justice.

We remember all the victims of the war.
We are grateful to everyone who fought against Nazism.
And we continue the fight for a free Ukraine and a free Crimea.