World War II was the bloodiest global conflict in which, according to various estimates, between 50 and 85 million people died. It is remembered all over the world as a terrible tragedy.
In September 1939, World War II came to Ukrainian territory when Lviv, Sambir and Drohobych were bombed by German aircraft. And on June 22, 1941, 81 years ago, at 4 a.m., Nazi planes dropped the first bombs on Kyiv.
Today, on the Day of Sorrow and Remembrance of War Victims, we remember all Ukrainians who suffered from the greatest catastrophe of the 20th century.
Ukraine lost about 10 million human lives during the Second World War. Nearly 13 million children were not born because of the war. We have never paid a higher price in history to remain a nation.
The Second World War left its mark on every Ukrainian family in one way or another. It gave us the bitter experience of loss and the inspiring example of heroism. We will always remember every fallen man, woman and child, military and civilian. To recall that we not only survived the terrible war, but that we subsequently attained our own statehood.
Now the war has stepped on our land again and is reaping a bloody harvest. Decades after World War II, darkness has come to Ukraine. And spring became black and white, and February became eternal. Evil has returned. In a different form, under different slogans, but with the same purpose. A bloody reenactment of Nazism was staged in Ukraine. A fanatical imitation of that regime. Its ideas, actions, words and symbols. Manic – to the details – reproduction of its atrocities and “alibis”, seemingly giving an evil sacred purpose. The repetition of its crimes and even attempts to surpass the “teacher” and dethrone him from the pedestal of the greatest evil in the history of mankind. To set a new world record for xenophobia, hatred, racism and the number of victims they can lead to.
Those who will never return to their homes alive will never be forgotten. We will not forget those who fought to the last man. And those whose lives were mutilated and destroyed in the crucible of a new and terrible war.
Eternal memory to the fallen. Honor and glory to the Heroes!
Honorary consul of the Republic of Moldova
Mykola Skrypkovskyi