Today we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the proclamation of the Unification Act of the UNR and the ZUNR – the Day of the National Unity of Ukraine. This date was recognized as an official holiday in 1999, however, at the time of Yanukovych’s presidency, the celebration at the official level was canceled. Nevertheless, in 2014 everything was returned to its place.
Petro Poroshenko called on Ukrainian citizens living on temporarily occupied territories of Russia on the day of the Unification Act. The President stressed, “We never forget about you, we work every day to bring the day of your liberation from the enemy’s arms”. At the same time, Poroshenko is convinced that in order to achieve these goals, it is necessary to save and strengthen the unity.
In addition, the guarantor recalled his decision to nominate Patriarch Filaret as the Hero of Ukraine, adding that this award was absolutely deserved, since all his life he had been selflessly serving the Church and the Ukrainian people.
Yevstratii Zoria on his page published a statement of the head of the OCU Epiphanius, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine on the occasion of the National Unity Day. Epiphanius is convinced that celebrating this day and anniversary of the Unification Act, we must remember our history, first of all, in order to make a conclusion: the power of the people is in the unity.
Instead, the People’s Deputy Boryslav Bereza admitted that for him January 22 is still a difficult and memorable day. The day when Serhii Nigoyan and Mykhailo Zhyznevskyi were killed, Yurii Verbytskyi was dead, too. Therefore, the deputy calls us to make proper conclusions from the tragic history of five years ago and to save Ukraine. After all, it is our greatest value.
Hanna Hopko, the People’s Deputy, in her turn, stressed that today, on the Day of National Unity, the main thing is to remember that we must be united, not giving a chance to divide us, to devalue our freedoms and the significance of the tectonic changes taking place in Ukraine. Then the enemy will have no chance to beat us.
Anatolii Hrytsenko, one of the presidential candidates for the upcoming elections, also joined the congratulations on the occasion of one of the main Ukrainian holidays, adding that he will spend this day in the Cherkasy region: visiting his mother, boys from the front and Cherkasy people.
The leader of the “Radical Party” Oleh Lyashko also congratulated the readers on the holiday, stressing that today our history can… repeat.
Iryna Lutsenko, the People’s Deputy and the wife of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, called Ukrainians to unite around our values and to remember that the guarantee of the existence of an independent, free, democratic, European, prosperous and strong Ukraine is in our unity.
Bohdan Yaremenko, a diplomat and chairman of the “Maidan of Foreign Affairs”, instead, noted that we have a holiday, but we do not have… the unity. Therefore, it is not worth celebrating it, we should work together so that this day once again had the point.
The head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, Nazar Holodnytskyi, is convinced that we must be more responsible for our actions and efforts in building a new democratic and legal state.
Political expert Olesia Yakhno-Belkovska concluded that after 2014, the Independence Day and the Day of National Unity got real, vital importance. In her opinion, Ukraine does everything right. Not too fast, with “treasons” and “victories”, with real mistakes and achievements… But it’s true.
The People’s Deputy Yehor Sobolev wrote that it is necessary to realize our weaknesses and develop our strength in order to make everything work. According to him, we are a society of rebels and conformists, dreams and consumerism, outbreaks of hope and ordinary disbelief. And this diversity is also ours. And it has a lot of energy that we will learn to manage sooner or later.
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