KYIV, May 8 – Russian Ambassador Viktor Chernomyrdin honored about 100 World War II veterans in the former Soviet republic of Ukraine on Wednesday, marking the 57th anniversary of the victory of Allied forces over Nazi Germany. “For our peoples, tomorrow is an especially memorable, dear and thrilling day that we will celebrate forever,” Chernomyrdin, a former Russian prime minister, told the veterans. In a sunny, garden-party ceremony on the embassy’s grounds in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, Chernomyrdin thanked an assembly of frail, gray-haired, men and women veterans – many of whose chests were freighted with medals – for defending Moscow and winning what the Soviets called the “Great Patriotic War”. “Today you belong to different nations, but no state can divide veterans of the war won by peoples of the Soviet Union,” Chernomyrdin said.
Then-Soviet Ukraine saw some of World War II’s fiercest battles, when German troops and their allies seized its territory and were later driven out by the Red Army. Kyiv and many other cities suffered massive damage. An estimated 3.5 million Ukrainians died serving the Red Army and 5 million more were killed elsewhere. In addition, 2 million people were sent to Nazi concentration camps or became slave laborers.
Official Victory Day ceremonies in Ukraine will place Thursday, including a veterans’ parade in central Kyiv. According to Soviet tradition, former republics mark the World War II victory on May 9.
