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81 years ago, the Soviet authorities began the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people, — Zelenskyy.
The President of Ukraine honored the memory of the victims of the deportation and genocide of the Crimean Tatar people.
An entire people were driven from their native land and sent on a journey that became a death sentence for thousands upon thousands of people, for many families. At least one-third of the Crimean Tatar people were lost due to disease, hunger, exhaustion, and abuse. A tragedy made possible by the criminal totalitarian system and the impunity of the leaders in Moscow. A tragedy that must never be repeated. But another Russian occupation of Crimea happened in 2014, and now again thousands of families, unfortunately, are separated. Once again, the fight for freedom and their own home is necessary.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy also emphasized that Crimea, like all of Ukraine, must be free. Empires always fall.
In Ukraine today, May 18, the Day of Remembrance for Victims of Political Repressions is observed.
This is a day of mourning for those who were destroyed simply for the right to be themselves — to think, speak, and live freely. On this day, we remember millions of Ukrainians whose lives were broken by the communist regime.
The International Commission on the Crimes of Communism (МКСК) reminded that mass political repressions in the USSR, especially during the so-called “Great Terror” of 1937–1938, became one of the most tragic chapters in Ukraine’s history.
According to archival data, in just two years, nearly 200,000 people were sentenced in the territory of the Ukrainian SSR, over 120,000 of whom were sentenced to execution. Among them were scientists, artists, priests, peasants, military personnel, and teachers. Some were sent to the GULAG camps or other places of imprisonment. All of them became “enemies of the people” on fabricated charges.
One of the most infamous mass burial sites is the Bykivnia Forest on the outskirts of Kyiv. Here, from 15,000 to over 100,000 people destroyed by the punitive organs of the NKVD are buried. Among the victims were poets Mykhail Semenko and Mike Johansen, artist Mykhailo Boychuk, Metropolitan Vasyl Lypkivskyi, and other figures of Ukrainian culture.
The Soviet authorities systematically concealed these crimes: burial sites were destroyed by bulldozers, archives were classified, and verdicts were often passed by extrajudicial “troikas” — without the right to defense or appeal. Confessions were extracted under torture.
True state recognition of the communist regime’s crimes came only after Ukraine restored its independence.
In 1991, the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR passed the Law “On the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repressions in Ukraine,” and in 2015 — the law condemning communist and Nazi totalitarian regimes and banning their symbols. Later, the legislative framework regarding rehabilitation procedures was improved.
“This day is a reminder of the price of freedom and independence and how important it is to protect human rights and dignity,” emphasized the International Commission on the Crimes of Communism.
As reported, the Day of Remembrance for Victims of Political Repressions is observed annually on the third Sunday of May according to a Presidential decree dated May 21, 2007. The day is dedicated to properly honoring the memory of the victims of political repressions and drawing public attention to the tragic events in Ukraine’s history caused by the forced implementation of communist ideology.
