In Lviv, near the monument to the Victims of Communist Crimes, at a popular assembly on 8 May, nearly 200 persons honoured the victims of WWII.
The event began with laying of flowers ceremony that was attended by the head of the Lviv Regional Council, Petro Kollodii, Deputy Mayor of Lviv, Oleh Syniutka, Ukrainian deputies, Iryna Farion, Oleh Pankevych, Stepan Kubiv and regional deputies.
After the Ukrainian anthem was heard, the participants observed a minute of silence.
During the public meeting, Petro Kolodii noted that we, like the rest of Europe, honor the victims of WWII on that day. According to him, it is very symbolic that in Lviv, it is done near the monument to the Victims of the Communist crimes and the memorial service is served near the memorial cross at the place of a Nazi concentration camp. “The Second World War ended in 1945 but not for Ukrainians. Here, near the prison in front of us (editor: Prison at Lontskoho Street), the war continued,” said Kolodii.
“We remember the crimes of Hitler's and Stalin’s regimes and bow our heads to the memory of the regimes’ victims,” stressed the head of the Lviv Regional Council.
Oleh Syniutka stressed that Lviv mourns with the whole world on that day, "We honor those who died during WWII. Today, first of all, we should speak about those who perished to give us the chance to live in the free and independent state. These are, first of all, the fighters of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army [UPA], who struggled against the two systems, the Nazi and Communist ones and the soldiers of the Red Army who were left to die as cannon fodder by the Communist system."
Syniutka noted, “However, there is no forgiveness for those butchers who tortured people in prisons, GULAG camps when the war was over for the civilized world.”
Deputies Iryna Farion and Stepan Kubiv, head of the Lviv Regional Organization of the Union of Officers of Ukraine, Petro Kostiuk and Head of the Lviv Regional branch of the All-Ukrainian Association of Veterans, Bohdan Vynnychenko also spoke at the meeting.
After the public meeting, the participants of the event moved in a candle procession to the Memorial Cross in the Citadel Complex and participated in a memorial service.