This is a day of remembrance for all Ukrainians who dedicated their lives to the struggle for the freedom and independence of Ukraine. First of all, it is a holiday of the knights of Kyivan Rus, the Cossacks of the Hetmanate, the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, and the soldiers of the UNR Army, the UPA and the OUN activists. Heroes’ Day has been celebrated for over seventy years. In 1941, the Second Great Meeting of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists decided to celebrate 23 May as Heroes’ Day. It was intended to revive in Ukrainians the heroic spirit of past generations, who gave our history vivid examples of struggle and self-sacrifice.
Why was May chosen to honor the Heroes? Because in May, the following best sons of Ukraine of the 20th century gave their lives in the liberation struggle:
Since May 1924, the ideologist of the state independence of Ukraine at the beginning of the 20th century, one of the co-authors of the ideological foundations of Ukrainian nationalism, Mykola Mikhnovsky (originally from the Poltava region);
On 25 May 1926, Symon Petliura (a native of Poltava), the leader of the Ukrainian national liberation struggle of 1917-21, was killed in Paris by a bullet from a Bolshevik agent;
On 23 May 1938, a bomb planted by an NKVD agent in Rotterdam ended the life of the organizer of the Ukrainian nationalist movement, the founder and first Leader of the Ukrainian Revolutionary Army and the OUN, Colonel Yevhen Konovalets (a native of the Lviv region).
Ukrainian heroes are ordinary people, women and men, boys and girls, children and the elderly, who joined the ranks of the Ukrainian Army to defend their homeland, who helped and continue to help our Army.
For the last four years, Heroes’ Day has been special in Ukraine. On 24 February 2022, Russia’s full-scale aggression against Ukraine began… Thousands of Ukrainians with weapons in their hands are defending their native Land from the Moscow invasion. The Third World War has begun, where the entire civilized world is on Ukraine’s side. There has never been such support for Ukraine in the world in the last 200 years. History has never known such unity of Ukrainians, courage and resilience in all its lands. With our struggle, we surprised and inspired the World and forced it to return to its eternal values.
This gives us a chance to win and put an end to the history of the Russian evil empire.
This gives us the strength to do our best to help Ukraine and its Armed Forces.
This makes it possible to dismantle the Moscow prison of nations and build free, democratic states on its ruins.
Freedom for nations! Freedom for the Individual!
Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!
