Victory Day over Nazism in World War II Marks for the First Time In Ukraine

This year, for the first time, Ukraine marks 8 May as the Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in World War II of 1939-1945, Ukrinform reports.

Last year, the Verkhovna Rada adopted the law "On the Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in World War II of 1939-1945", which established 8 May as the Day of Remembrance and Victory, the only date on which Ukraine celebrates the victory over Nazism and commemorates those who died in World War II. From now on, there will also be a day off on 8 May, when martial law in Ukraine ends.

Civil society organisations began commemorating the end of World War II on 8 May in Ukraine in the early 2000s. In 2014, this format was supported at the government level by the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance and the Ministry of Culture. 

In 2015, first by presidential decree, and then by laws on decommunisation, 8 May was introduced as the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation (a holiday, but not a day off). May 9 was retained as the Day of Victory over Nazism, as public opinion was not ready to abandon the usual date.

In 2022, MP Volodymyr Viatrovych introduced a bill to abolish 9 May and establish 8 May as the Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in World War II, and proposed to celebrate Europe Day on 9 May together with the European Union.

In 2023, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy submitted a bill to the Verkhovna Rada to establish 8 May as the Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in World War II. In addition, he signed a decree that Ukraine will celebrate Europe Day on 9 May.

Since 2014, the red poppy has been the symbol of World War II commemoration in Ukraine, as well as in Europe.

The Day of Remembrance and Victory is a reminder that World War II began as a result of agreements between two totalitarian regimes: the National Socialist (Nazi) in Germany and the Communist in the USSR, as well as the tacit unwillingness of the world's most powerful states to resist the aggressors.

Ukrainians on the side of the anti-Hitler coalition made a significant contribution to the victory over Nazism and Hitler's Germany's allies. Millions of Ukrainians resisted with arms in various regular armies of the world, and hundreds of thousands fought in underground and insurgent structures. Almost all Ukrainian enterprises were reoriented to the needs of defence. At the same time, the Ukrainian land was one of the main theatres of war, a place of large-scale battles and fierce resistance.

Both totalitarian regimes committed numerous crimes against the civilian population during the occupation of Ukraine, including the Holocaust, mass murder, and deportation. Ukrainian losses in the Second World War amounted to about 8 million people (including five million civilians and three million military).

Today, the heir to the Stalinist regime is the Russian Federation, which appropriates the victory over Nazism and actively cultivates myths about World War II not only within its own country and among the states that were once part of the USSR, but also manipulates them in Europe and around the world.