Maybe the only day when all disputes in the network are stopped, the quarrels fade away, and all network users rather resemble one big family that is celebrating together. Independence Day of Ukraine is the day when certain results are usually summed up, minimum forecasts are made. When you greet each other and eventually you make a declaration of love to her, to your country. About how the main holiday of Ukraine is celebrated on the Internet – in reactions from DUMKA.
Actually, there are so many congratulations on the occasion of the Independence Day in the network that it’s almost impossible to put all of them it in the review. However, let’s try, at least superficially, to go through the posts and understand what write users of the Ukrainian segment of Facebook today. For example, Petro Poroshenko stressed that freedom, will, and independence were never given to Ukraine easily. Although according to the president, today we are paying a high price for the right to be independent, we remain a solid, unbreakable nation, an independent European state, a single and indivisible Ukraine, which for centuries was a dream of generations of Ukrainians who fought for the freedom of our country.
Nazar Golodnytsky, head of the specialized anti-corruption prosecutor’s office, noted that this day is celebrated as the most important holiday of our country, as it is the result of the struggle of the Ukrainian people for the right to have their own state.
Political expert Olesya Yakhno-Belkovskaya also congratulated her readers on the Independence Day, stressing that, despite the difficult years of the war, Ukraine has grown considerably in its self-sufficiency. The expert also recalled the current military parade, the emotions during its watch, the dignity and love with which we began to treat our country.
Journalist and blogger Roza Tumanova, on the other hand, believes that independence can’t be conquered once and for all. It needs to be conquered every day if you want it to stay with you. Moreover, we still have to move from de jure independence to the actual independence. According to the blogger, we have to learn how to be real Ukrainians in our God-given land, not “Soviets” or “Little Russians”. That’s why a lot of work still needs to be done in order to finally get your dreamed country.
Tetyana Rychkova, a volunteer, and an MP gave a small list of what Ukraine can be proud of. This is the first constitution in the world, the legendary “Shchedryk”, the Ukrainian Cossacks, as well as an inexhaustible source of art, culture, and architecture. We are the largest country in Europe, and we, according to the MP, are not 27, but 1536 years old.
Political expert Olexiy Minakov also congratulated his readers on the Independence Day and reminded once again that the fifth year in a row our fighters have been fighting heroically for independence on the main front – the military one. And it’s our duty, at least, to thank them and defend the independence at all possible levels – informational, cultural, economic and political. The specialist also added that this holiday annoys the supporters of “Russian world” because they seek peace, the conditions of which is a capitulation to Putin. But we are continuing our struggle.
Eugene Mahda, the Director of the Institute for World Politics, shared the traditional wish for this day – so that our country’s fate depends more on each of us.
Blogger Andriy Karpov stressed that independence can’t be bought, it can only be captured in the struggle. In an everyday and persistent struggle of every citizen of Ukraine. After all, each of us gets this independence in our own locations: the military – at the front, doctors – in the operating rooms, businessmen – at their enterprises, etc. We’ve started this track to independence and we shouldn’t get out of it.
Journalist and public activist Olena Balaba acknowledged that our independence is obtained hard for us, but we remember all those who gave up their lives for the occasion that we’re celebrating this day. After all, Oleg Sentsov, who has been starving for more than one hundred days now, is also our Ukraine. Those guys who repulse the attacks in the trenches and dugouts, they are also our Ukraine. However, people who don’t allow to make a ramp in the Paralympic champion’s house, and girls who beat their peer with legs in Odessa, is, in fact, our Ukraine as well. Therefore, we have something to work on. There are things we need to correct and educate, we have the direction where to go and how to improve.
The blogger and actor Andriy Alekhin admitted that earlier it seemed to him that the main holidays are birthdays and the New Year. However, when signs where the bomb shelter appears in your backyard, you begin to understand what holiday is really the main one.
The writer Maxym Butchenko reminded us of the heroes who, in different years, gave their lives only for the opportunity for us to be called Ukrainians, stressing that we would remember those who had made this day possible.
Artist Serhii Bryhar, in his turn, said that the independence received by Ukraine in August actually was accidental. Thus, it was “accidental” until 2014. Until the beginning of the war with an old enemy. This war, according to the author of the post, could not be avoided, it is natural. Since its beginning people with a blurred national identity, an indistinct personal and general priorities, who were the majority in this country, began to realize themselves not as the inhabitants of the colonial Ukrainian SSR, but as Ukrainians, people who belong to a full-fledged European community.
Today, according to the artist, Independence Day is perceived not as it was before the war. After all, there was a general rethinking of many fundamental aspects. Now the real significance of independence is understood by a considerably bigger number of Ukrainians than it was 2010.
Oleksandr Dedyukhin, rector of St. Nicholas Church of Poltava city, said that the word “holiness” is synonymous with the words “independence”, which means “separated”. Both independence and holiness can be lost, deprived and destroyed, but it can also be multiplied, enlarged and developed. And what could be better than consuming the fruits that bring both independence and holiness?
Larysa Ivshyna, the chief editor of newspaper “Day”, instead, spoke about a certain “barrier” that separates Ukrainian society from the fullness of historical truth. After all, during the speech in honor of the Independence Day, the president only mentioned Hrushevsky and the Universal of the Ukrainian People Republic, but for some reason, he hadn’t mentioned those who created the institutions and, the statehood itself.
Writers Dmytro and Vitaliy Kapranov reminded that independence is to live with your own mind on your own land. According to the authors, we are walking around the desert for 27 years and there is not much left to the happy finale – 13 more years.
The blogger Boris Nemirovski is convinced that out of 27 years Ukrainian independence has spent 23 if not well-off, but certainly in peace, lulled by stories about strategic alliances with neighbors and distant ones, calmed down by the “fraternity” with Russia. This independence woke up before only once when the Orange Revolution broke out. But it had ended up quite peacefully.
This is scary, but, according to Nemirovsky, the granted independence is not appreciated, it has no value. Ukraine began to appreciate its independence only when it was washed with blood and realized that “the elder brothers” are not brothers at all, but greedy enslavers. In recent years, independence has been meaningful, fought for. It may terrible to say it, but a bloody price was paid. That is, it became the one that was earned but not received as a gift.
Therefore, according to the blogger’s words, today one can understand: no matter how the former enslavers freak out, how they fight, they have nothing to gain. Because both soldiers and equipment are present not only on the parade but also where intruders are. The next parade can already take place in Donetsk or Luhansk because we’ve learned how to fight for our independence, not to beg for it.
Reactions were collected by Stepan the Goat
