Zelenskyy declares 9 May Europe Day and proposes to mark Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism on 8 May

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposes that the Verkhovna Rada [Ukrainian Parliament] establish 8 May as the Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in World War II (1939-1945) in Ukraine, while 9 May should be marked not as Victory Day but as Europe Day.

Source: Zelenskyy’s speech on the occasion of the Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in World War II (1939-1945)

Quote: "On 8 May, Ukraine and the free world remember six terrible years in the history of mankind. From 1939 to 1945... The years that took the lives of millions of people, including eight million Ukrainians. The years of occupation and atrocities, bloody battles and bombings, blockades and mass executions, the Holocaust. All the evil that Nazism brought to the world, brought to our land.

Different nations opposed evil in unity, as allies of the anti-Hitler coalition. The nations of Europe and America... Asia, Australia, Africa – each has its own history of fighting in that war, but the common history of victory."

Details: Zelenskyy has noted that it is on 8 May that the greatness of the victory over Nazism is remembered by most of the world's peoples. It was on 8 May 1945 that the act of unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht came into force. And it is on 8 May that the world honours the memory of all those whose lives were taken by that war.

Quote: "It is pure history, without ideological admixtures. And it is the history of our people, our allies, the entire free world. Today, we are returning it to our state.

Today, I am submitting a bill to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine proposing that 8 May be the Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in World War II (1939-1945)."

Details: Zelenskyy said that Ukrainians will never forget their nation's contribution to the victory over Nazism and will not allow anyone to "erase the role of Ukrainians in this victory, our people, that generation whose memory we cherish in almost every family."

"We will not allow the joint victory of the nations of the anti-Hitler coalition to be appropriated and we will not allow lies as if the victory could have taken place without the participation of any country or nation," the president said. 

We destroyed evil together! In the same way as we are now opposing a similar evil together. Remembering the heroism of millions of Ukrainians in that war against Nazism, we see the same heroism in the actions of our soldiers now – the descendants of those who secured the victory – the surrender of Nazism that day, on 8 May 1945. And we are proud of the heroism of the Ukrainian people! Then and now," Zelenskyy stressed.

Quote: "Now, as 80 years ago, Ukraine is fighting against total evil. Now, just like 80 years ago, Ukraine is fighting for the future – its own and that of the whole of Europe, the whole free world. Now, as 80 years ago, we rely on the common strength of free nations and know that together with them we will always be part of a free Europe that will not submit to evil. 

And together with all of free Europe, we will celebrate Europe Day on May 9 in Ukraine. A united Europe, the basis of which should be and will be peace. Our Europe, which Ukraine has always been, is, and will be a part of.

Today, I signed the relevant decree, and every year from tomorrow, 9 May, we will commemorate our historic unity – the unity of all Europeans who destroyed Nazism and will defeat ruscism."

Background: 

• In March 2015, President Petro Poroshenko issued a decree designating 8 May as the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation in Ukraine, but 9 May remained the Day of Victory over Nazism in World War II. 8 May was a working day and 9 May remained a public holiday.
• Poroshenko then explained this by his desire to unite Ukraine and stated: "When we hear the president of a neighbouring country answer the provocateur's question that the victory could have happened without Ukrainians, it is a split in the general anti-fascist movement, a mockery of the memory of Ukrainians who liberated not only Ukraine but the whole of Europe."
• On 2 May 2023, after 9 years of Russia's hybrid war against Ukraine and more than a year of full-scale war, the Verkhovna Rada legislatively recognised the political regime in Russia as "ruscism" and condemned it.
• Russia celebrates Victory Day in the "Great Patriotic War" on 9 May.

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