For the first time in the history of independent Ukraine, Victory Day celebrations will be held in a war-like atmosphere as fears of a full-scale Russian invasion remain.
Consequently, Ukraine has curtailed events on May
9 – which is when the defeat of Nazi Germany is celebrated in the former Soviet
Union. Parades, public prayers and a festival at Spivoche Pole were cut out.
Foreign embassies are warning their citizens about traveling in Ukraine,
while Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) says the nation’s eastern oblasts remain
vulnerable to attacks by Kremlin-backed separatists. Additionally, the SBU says
that western and central regions could face danger, too.
Volodymyr Bondarenko, the head of Kyiv City State Administration, doesn’t
rule out attempts to destabilize the capital city as well.
“These days are very convenient for provocateurs. Taking into consideration
that Ukrainian-Russian borders are very easy to pass, the question about
“Putin’s tourists” becomes very urgent,” Bondarenko said.
SBU authorities urged Ukrainians to avoid clashes and to help law
enforcement.
According to Bondarenko, all police will be on high alert
on May 9 and guarding high-risk targets. Paramilitary groups formed during
the EuroMaidan Revolution that toppled President Viktor Yanukvoych will also be
keeping order.
But even with all the precautions, there are still
ways to celebrate Victory Day in Kyiv.
At 9 a.m. Patriarch Filaret, the head of Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv
Patriarchy, will lay flowers to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Park Slavy
in Kyiv’s Pechersk district.
At 10 a.m.Patriarch Filaret will lead the memorial service in St. Volodymyr’s
Cathedral (20 Taras Shevchenko Blvd.).
At 9:30 a.m. officials will visit Park Slavy. Interim President Oleksandr
Turchynov will lay flowers to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Fireworks shows will take place at 9 p.m. in Kyiv, as
well as in Odessa, Vinnytsya, Lviv, Zhytomyr, Rivne and Dnipropetrovsk.
Ignoring pleas to avoid provoking unrest, the former ruling Party of
Regions, the Communist Party and Military Union activists at 11 a.m. plan to
march from Kyiv’s Arsenal plant along Ivana Mazepy Street towards the Museum of
the Great Patriotic War in Kyiv.
The nationalist Right Sector party said it does not plan any political
action on May 9.
Victory Day should be a day of mourning rather than a festival, Yuriy
Lutsenko, Ukrainian ex-interior minister thinks. “May 9 can only be a day
of memory and sorrow,” Lutsenko wrote on his Facebook.
St. George’s ribbon
Fewer than usual black-and-orange St. George’s might be seen on Victory Day
because of Russia’s undeclared war on Ukraine.
In recent months, the symbol of Soviet victory has been hijacked by pro-Russian
separatist protesters, who wear them to identify their allegiances and who have
worn them at rallies and during violent assaults.
Their symbolism, consequently, has changed for the worse in the opinion of
many Ukrainians.
The Ukrainian Institute of National Memory called Ukrainians to replace the
St. George’s ribbon with a red poppy flower, a symbol that has been used in
Commonwealth countries on Remembrance Day.
The St. George’s ribbon was first used in the Russian Empire during the
ruling of Catherine The Great as a ribbon for the St. George’s war medal. After
World War II, the Soviet authorities used the ribbon colors for the Victory
Medal.
The estimation of the number of Ukrainians killed during the Second World
War varies from eight million to 14 million people. The exact number of deaths
is still unknown because all the military archives are in Moscow. Russian
authorities have not declassified any of the archives yet.
During
the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War, which is how World War II is known during
Soviet times, the Red Army lost nearly 8.7 million of its personnel, which is
1.5 million more than the previously stated official figure, said Alexander
Kanshin, head of the Russian Public Chamber national security commission.
Kyiv Post staff writers Nataliya Trach and Olena
Goncharova can be reached at [email protected] and[email protected] respectively.
