The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky made a speech on the occasion of the Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in the Second World War.
On May 8, Ukraine, together with the entire democratic world, remembers the most terrible war in the history of mankind and calls for resistance to the new aggressor — Russia.
"The world did not see the threat, the world slept through the revival of Nazism — at five in the morning on February 24, 2022. And today, everyone who remembers the Second World War and lived to this day feels deja vu," says Zelensky.
He emphasized: only the free world united in an anti-Putin coalition is capable of stopping Nazism, as it was in 1945.
"Only the united free world can stop this, as in 1945. United in the anti-Putin coalition. Not with words, but with actions, he is able to stop the Nazis in Moscow, to prevent new evil from spreading to the entire European continent, and later to the entire world. To prove loyalty to the words ʼNever again!ʼ, so that ʼNever again!ʼ was relevant again."
- In most European countries, as well as in the USA and Great Britain, the holiday of victory in the Second World War is commemorated on May 8, because in 1945, on this day at 22:43 CET, the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany was signed. The surrender was signed at 00:43 Moscow time the next day — May 9.
- Until 2015, Ukraine, like other CIS countries, officially celebrated Victory Day on May 9. In 2015, the Verkhovna Rada amended the legislation: May 8 was established as the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation in honor of all victims of the Second World War, and May 9 was the Day of Victory over Nazism in the Second World War.
- A year ago, the text of the Presidentʼs Draft Law No. 9278 on establishing May 8 as the Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in the Second World War of 1939-1945 appeared on the Parliamentʼs website. According to Zelenskyʼs proposal, this day will become a holiday, i.e. non-working day, but only after the end of martial law.