Victory Day in Ukraine was accompanied by violence from radicals and controversial actions of law enforcement officers.

The official part of the holiday consisted mainly in the laying on of flowers by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky at the Eternal Flame in Kiev and his visit to the nearby National Museum of the History of Ukraine in World War II.

Until 2015, this institution was called the National Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War.

In a video message posted on the website of the president's office, Zelensky said that the war for the country is, first of all, a memory of the “terrible price” - eight million Ukrainians who died.

In this regard, the head of state urged to perceive Victory Day "without euphoria and dizziness."

“What is victory over Nazism for us?

This is participation in a great cause for humanity.

After all, this war was not about whose army will win.

And about whose philosophy will win, ”Zelensky said.

According to him, during the Second World War, Nazism "lost forever."

The President of the country paid special attention to the contribution to the defeat of the Third Reich of servicemen born in Ukraine. 

Zelensky remembered the soldier Alexei Berest, who, together with Mikhail Yegorov and Meliton Kantaria, hoisted the Victory Banner over the Reichstag, pilot Ivan Kozhedub, sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko, scout Yevgeny Bereznyak and Lieutenant General Kuzma Derevyanko, who on September 2, 1945, accepted the Japanese linco surrender. ".

He also said that it was the "Ukrainian crew of the Ukrainian tank" who was the first to break open the gates of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau (Auschwitz), actually repeating the words spoken in 2015 by the head of the Polish Foreign Ministry (then this post was held by Grzegorz Schetina. -

RT

), that it was " Ukrainian soldiers were opening the gates of the camp. " True, Pavel Savitsky, a spokesman for the press service of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, told TASS at the same time that “the German Nazi death camp Auschwitz was liberated on January 27, 1945 by soldiers of the Red Army, among whom were representatives of different peoples, including Ukrainians,” however the museum does not have lists or other documents concerning these soldiers, he said.

In addition, in his video message, Zelensky compared the aggression of the Third Reich with the conflict in the Donbass, which, according to the terminology adopted by the official Kiev, must be called a "war with Russia."

“Therefore, from generation to generation, fathers told their sons about the war.

But it turned upside down, and since 2014, sons have been telling their fathers about the war.

And it is no longer grandfathers who can tell grandchildren, but grandchildren to grandfathers about such things as bombing or captivity, ”Zelensky said.

"Absurd and immoral"

Experts interviewed by RT called the "congratulatory" statements of the Ukrainian president absurd.

Political analysts believe that Zelensky, like his predecessor Petro Poroshenko, is trying to ignore the fact of the heroic mission of the Red Army, in which the Ukrainians fought, and to erode the overall contribution of the Soviet people to the Victory.

For this reason, in Ukraine, the concept of "Great Patriotic War" was replaced by "World War II", which emphasizes the "involvement" of Ukraine in the struggle that took place outside the USSR. 

  • President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, Prime Minister Denis Shmygal, Minister of Culture Oleksandr Tkachenko

  • © president.gov.ua

“It all looks extremely ridiculous.

Zelenskiy will not hurt to carefully read a history textbook, just not the one in modern Ukrainian schools.

It was the USSR that made a key contribution to the Victory over fascism, and therefore the war was “Patriotic”.

To deny this is absurd and immoral, ”Ukrainian political analyst Alexander Semchenko said in an interview with RT.

At the same time, according to the expert, Zelensky seeks to give the topic of the fight against Nazism an anti-Russian sound, comparing Moscow's “aggression” with the war of conquest unleashed by the Third Reich.

According to Semchenko, such an interpretation is blasphemy, first of all, in relation to residents of the Donbass affected by the actions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

In a commentary on RT, Oleg Nemensky, a leading researcher at the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, noted that Zelensky's speech fully fits into the outline of "the logic of national self-identification that was adopted in 2014."

“In the official Ukrainian version of that war, the real patriots were the collaborators, who are usually called Bandera.

But, of course, Kiev does not dare to say openly that they liberated the country.

For this reason, soldiers and officers who were born in Ukraine are constantly mentioned, but the fact that they served in the Red Army is omitted, ”stated Nemensky.

In Ukraine, Victory Day is still an official holiday, despite the establishment of new solemn dates after the "Maidan" and the definition of a red poppy flower as a symbol of World War II.

According to experts, the Kiev authorities do not dare to ban on May 9, fearing mass outrage from citizens.

“In my opinion, one way or another, May 9 is celebrated by the overwhelming majority of Ukrainians.

This is a holy holiday for them.

Neither anti-Soviet propaganda, nor the inculcation of a cult of Hitler's new accomplices seriously changed the perception of Victory Day, "Semchenko says.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, 667 events were officially registered on Victory Day in 2021.

Memorable processions and motor rallies were held in different cities of Ukraine.

Some actions were not without scuffles and attacks from radicals.

The stringer of the RT Ruptly video agency was attacked by nationalists after he interviewed passers-by in one of the Ukrainian cities about their attitude to Victory Day, the chief editor of the TV channel Margarita Simonyan said on her Telegram channel. 

On the Alley of the Unknown Sailor in Odessa, a fight was caught in the lens of the camera of the Strana.ua publication, which was caused by an attempt by nationalists to snatch from one of the women the portrait of Marshal Georgy Zhukov with the "St. George" ribbon attached to it.

At the same time, the police did not detain the attackers - instead of them, the injured woman from Odessa was delivered to the department.

By the evening of May 9, law enforcement officers of the seaside city recorded 12 administrative offenses.

The police communications department of the Odessa region, in particular, said that the guards detained a 63-year-old man who came to Shevchenko Park with a "St. George's" ribbon, and a 17-year-old teenager who showed a Nazi swastika on the Walk of Fame.

Invalid holiday

Judging by the news reports, the police in Ukraine mainly reacted to the appearance of symbols among citizens, which are usually referred to as communist.

On the eve of the holiday, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine was threatened with a fine for wearing, “making and propagating” the “St. George” ribbon in the amount of 850 to 2,550 hryvnias (from 2,270 to 6,800 rubles).

As a result of several incidents registered in the Odessa and Zaporozhye regions, the police even opened criminal proceedings.

For example, against two residents of the village of Mikhailovsky district of the Zaporozhye region, who raised red flags with a hammer and sickle over their houses on May 9, law enforcement officers opened proceedings under two articles of the country's criminal code: Art.

436-1 (production and distribution of communist and Nazi symbols) and Article 185 (malicious disobedience to a lawful order or request of a police officer).

  • Kiev police on Victory Day

  • © Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine

At the same time, in relation to a 16-year-old teenager, who in Kiev near the Park of Eternal Glory allowed himself to voice a Nazi greeting, the guards started an administrative protocol under the article “Petty hooliganism”.

We will remind that since 2015 in Ukraine there has been a normative act entitled "On the condemnation of the communist and national socialist (Nazi) totalitarian regimes in Ukraine and the prohibition of the propaganda of their symbols."

The document equated Soviet state symbols with the banners of the Third Reich.

For breaking the law, you can get up to 10 years in prison.

Despite this, marches and other events in honor of the SS Galicia division and the OUN-UPA * formations are regularly held in Ukrainian cities, during which radicals use Nazi symbols and greetings. 

According to experts, citizens with pro-Soviet views or demonstrating the symbols of the USSR on May 9 are mainly subject to criminal punishment in Ukraine.

According to Semchenko, even the assault flag of the 150th Infantry Division, better known as the Victory Banner, is banned in the country.

“This is especially strange against the background of the fact that Zelensky, in his video message, recalled Alexei Berest, who helped hoist the Victory Banner.

For any symbols on red canvases associated with the USSR and the Red Army, you can now get up to 10 years in prison.

Whereas the local neo-Nazis were hardly touched by the police on May 9, as before, which very well reflects the essence of the current regime in the country, ”says Semchenko.

As the interlocutor of RT explained, the actions of radicals with the demonstration of prohibited symbols are most often accompanied by a small number of arrests.

Fans of Adolf Hitler's ideas are released by law enforcement officers after administrative protocols have been drawn up, without being charged with Nazi propaganda.

“The Ministry of Internal Affairs is doing everything so that the proceedings do not reach the court.

And now, on May 9, we see the same thing, ”Semchenko says.

Oleg Nemensky believes that the ruling elite of Ukraine is deliberately covering up the nationalists, using their ideology as a tool to combat the tradition of celebrating May 9.

According to him, the Kiev authorities are striving to create an atmosphere in society when citizens will be uncomfortable talking about the fact that their relatives fought in the Red Army.

“Unfortunately, in modern Ukraine, the 'values' of an active minority set the tone for the nationwide ideology, the meaning of which is to blindly oppose oneself to everything connected with Russia.

In this context, it is considered unacceptable as the Russian people to celebrate such a unifying holiday as Victory Day, ”concluded Nemensky.

* "Ukrainian Insurgent Army" (UPA) is a Ukrainian organization recognized as extremist and banned on the territory of Russia (decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 11/17/2014).