The following two articles provide information regarding the differing
opinions of the proposed May 8th and 9th commemoration dates. The Lviv
regional chapter of the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists (CUN) is initiating
declaration of May 8 as the Day of Liberation of Europe; Social Democratic
Party (united)'s leader Viktor Medvedchuk criticizes Prime Minister for
Humanitarian Affairs Mykola Tomenko for initiating the cancellation of
the military parade on May 9, the day of celebration of the sixtieth anniversary
of the Great Patriotic War.
CUN initiating declaration of May 8 as European Liberation Day
(Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists)
Ukrainian News Agency,
Kyiv, Ukraine,
March 11, 2005
KYIV - The Lviv regional chapter of the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists
(CUN) is initiating declaration of May 8 as the Day of Liberation of Europe.
The regional chapter of CUN announced this in a statement. "Moscow is organizing
pompous commemoration of its victory, the road to which was strewn with
the bodies of many nations and nationalities of Europe," the statement
states.
It further states that the military operations on the territory of western
Ukraine continued for a long time after the end of the Great Patriotic
War. "The Kremlin, after defeating the brown Reichstag, continued to fight
against the peoples of the 'Union of Indivisible Republics of the Free,'"
the statement says. According to CUN, May 9 is not a holiday for Ukrainians.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, during a visit to Lviv in February,
President Viktor Yuschenko initiated reconciliation talks between fighters
of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent
Army and the fighters of the Soviet Army.
In early March, Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian Affairs Mykola
Tomenko called for cancellation of the military parade on May 9, the day
of commemoration of the sixtieth anniversary of the Great Patrio tic War.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin has invited Yuschenko to participate in events commemorating the sixtieth anniversary of the Great Patriotic War in Moscow on May 9.