The following statement was released on May 8 by the Ukrainian World Congress.
On May 8, the 75th anniversary of the Victory Day in Europe, the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) joins the international community in solemn commemoration for the millions of victims and in eternal gratitude to the brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for a free world.
World War II, which had begun in 1939 with the Nazi-Soviet invasion and dismemberment of Poland, became the most brutal war in human history. Its cost is beyond calculation: in Ukraine alone, over 8 million lives were lost, over 2 million people were forcibly deported. Today we pay tribute to millions of Ukrainian men and women who bravely fought in the World War II, among them over 250 000 Ukrainians who served in Polish, French, British, U.S. and Canadian armed forces. We owe them an eternal debt that can never be repaid.
Caught between the totalitarian and murderous empires of Hitler and Stalin, Ukrainian people fought valiantly against both occupying regimes. The end of World War II did not bring peace or freedom to Ukraine. Instead, Stalin’s Soviet Union brought oppression and tyranny to Ukraine, as well as to many other captive nations of Eastern Europe. For over four decades, Ukraine was forced to continue its struggle against the Soviet regime that persecuted and denied the Ukrainian people the fundamental right to live freely.
Today, the people of Ukraine are once again forced to fight for their land and freedom as Russia seeks to subjugate Ukraine to its imperialistic rule. Russia, the modern-day aggressor state, seeks to utilize World War II symbols to justify and glorify its occupation of Crimea and invasion of the Ukrainian Donbas. Through state-financed campaigns like “Bezsmernyi Polk,” Russia seeks to present Soviet totalitarianism in a positive light, whitewash the horrific crimes of Soviet Communism and affirm the cult of Stalin’s Soviet victory in World War II, using this propaganda to fuel the war in the Donbas.
“As we commemorate the millions of World War II victims and pay tribute to those who fought for a free world, the UWC calls upon the international community to heed the lessons of history. We must not appease a modern-day tyrant who is attempting to rebuild the Russian empire,” stated Paul Grod, UWC president. “During these commemorations, Ukrainians together with other Eastern European and Baltic peoples will remember Stalin’s murderous legacy and the crimes of the Soviet Union as a prison of captive nations.”