Remembrance and Victory Day

8.5.2025

On May 8, Ukraine celebrates Remembrance and Victory Day, honoring those who died in World War II of 1939–1945.

This day was established by the Law of Ukraine in 2023 as a sign of solidarity with Europe in memory of that terrible tragedy in the history of mankind.

World War II began for Ukraine with the attack of Nazi Germany on Poland on September 1, 1939 and the bombing of Lviv and other cities by German military aircraft. And from June 22, 1941, after the invasion of the troops of Germany and its allies into the territory of the USSR, all of Ukraine became the scene of fierce fighting. About 7 million people were mobilized from Ukraine to the Red Army during the war. Every second of them died, and every second of those who survived became disabled.

Remembrance and Victory Day is a reminder that World War II began as a result of agreements between two totalitarian regimes: National Socialist (Nazi) in Germany and Communist in the USSR, as well as the tacit reluctance of the most powerful states in the world to resist the aggressors. In 1939–1945, both totalitarian regimes committed numerous crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes of genocide on Ukrainian soil, as a result of which the Ukrainian, Jewish, Crimean Tatar, and other peoples living within the territory of modern Ukraine suffered enormous losses.

In this struggle, we lost more than eight million Ukrainians and representatives of other peoples living on our land. In total, World War II claimed the lives of from 50 to 85 million people around the world.

Today, Ukrainians with weapons in their hands are defending not only themselves, but all European countries from Russian expansion and are giving a chance to build a more lasting peace and create a new, more just, global security system. The condition for this is victory over Russia, restoration of the territorial integrity of Ukraine and impossibility of future aggression of Russian imperialism against anyone on our planet. Today, in the conditions of aggression, the only way to restore peace is to defeat the invader.

We remember! We win!

Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the Heroes! Glory to the nation! Death to the enemies!

Educational and Research Institute of Philology and Journalism