On May 9 Ukraine, as well as many other country-participants of the anti-Hitler coalition, honored the memory of those, who gained the Great Victory over fascism, having won the right to the worthy life in the free society, the one which is being built in Ukraine.
The heroism of warriors of the four Ukrainian fronts, millions of killed, recognition of Ukraine as a state-founder of the United Nations Organization is the proof of the significant contribution of the Ukrainians to the victorious end of the Second World War.
For Ukraine Victory Day is the holiday without politics, the truly spiritual and all-national holiday. This is the holiday of our veterans, support for whom must be the main sign of gratitude of the modern and future generations for their undying deed.
Unfortunately, every next year since those epochal events brings more politics into the discussion of the Second World War. Sometimes honoring those killed and respect to the veterans is being substituted for patriotism for show and an attempt to divide the peoples into more or less worthy heirs of winners over fascism. In Ukraine such an approach towards the sacred for everyone topic is believed to be wrong in principle.
The May 9 events in Lviv have shown what political games may result in. The Ukrainian law enforcement agencies have done everything necessary for everyone to honor the tragic pages of the past the way his heart and his beliefs dictate. The Ukrainian government has given and will always give a decisive rebuff to any manifestations of unacceptable and even extrinsic to Ukrainian society hatred and radicalism. That is why the President of Ukraine has instructed to establish a working group of representatives of the Prosecutor General Office, the Security Service of Ukraine and the Ministry of the Interior to investigate into the events in Lviv and give a legal assessment to facts of violation of human rights and freedoms.
Ukraine is sympathetic to the special sensitivity with which the Russian partners view the problems of extremism and xenophobia. The Ukrainian people feel sad to observe the activization of nationalist movements in Russia. Disorders by radicals on Manezhnaya Square in Moscow in December 2010, accompanied with rude violation of the norms of the European Convention on Human Rights, aroused sincere indignation in Ukraine. We are ready to jointly fight this evil.
Regrettably, the two countries have politicians who in the previous years got used to earn political dividends through provoking tensions in bilateral relations. During the recent time Ukraine has done much to make such “figures” jobless. Our common responsibility now is to prevent them from entering the political arena again. Unfortunately, the reaction of the Russian side to the Lviv events indicates that the tools in the arsenal of anti-Ukrainian campaign have not been tossed into the dustbin of history. We believe that Ukraine and Russia will show the world the example of tolerance and mutual respect in such sensitive issues, as historical memory and national identity.