Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych is paying serious attention to the preparations for the celebration of Day of Unity and Freedom of Ukraine and is planning to attend it, the head of the presidential administration, Serhiy Liovochkin, has said.
"The president is paying much attention to the issue. He will personally attend the celebration on Jan. 22," Liovochkin said.
He stressed that the president will do everything to unite the country in future.
The Day of Unity of Ukraine has been celebrated since 1999 by the presidential decree to mark the political and historical significance of the unification of the Ukrainian People’s Republic and the West Ukrainian People’s Republic in 1919 with the aim of creating a single Ukrainian state.
On Dec. 30, 2011 President Yanukovych signed a decree on the marking of some memorable dates and professional holidays in Ukraine, according to which Day of Unity and Freedom of Ukraine is marked on Jan. 22.
On Jan. 22, 1919 the Unification Act was signed between the Ukrainian People’s Republic and the West Ukrainian People’s Republic on Sofiyska Square in Kyiv. According to the Act, the West Ukrainian People’s Republic joined the Ukrainian People’s Republic.
But due to a difficult international and internal situation the Ukrainian republics did not actually unite, and their administrations acted independently. Ukraine marked Unification Day for the first time on Jan. 22, 1990, when people united into kilometers-long living chains between Ukrainian cities.
