Ukrainian Flag Day: Poroshenko is preparing to declare the UPA banner an official symbol
At the ceremony held today on the occasion of the National Flag Day of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko for the first time mentioned as a national symbol the black and red banner of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which Soviet historians accused of collaborating with Nazi Germany.
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Ukrainian Flag Day is a fairly young holiday, established by decree of Viktor Yushchenko during his presidency.
The ceremony took place in front of St. Sophia Cathedral in the center of Kyiv. The space closer to the place of Poroshenko’s speech was only for invitees; ordinary Kiev residents could watch what was happening from the other side of the street through the presidential guard.
The banner was raised on the flagpole by a soldier of the National Guard of Ukraine, Miroslav Gai, who a year ago hoisted the Ukrainian flag over Slavyansk when it was occupied by the Armed Forces of Ukraine after the retreat of Igor Strelkov’s detachment to Donetsk.
Petro Poroshenko gave a speech, a significant part of which he devoted to listing how Russia persecuted supporters of Ukrainian independence who operated under the yellow-blue flag.
“The battle flag of the Third Iron Rifle Division of the Ukrainian People's Republic has survived to this day. This unit was awarded it for victorious battles against the Russian-Bolshevik aggressors in 1919. For dozens of years it was kept in exile by Stepan Skrypnik, nephew and adjutant of Simon Petliura, a warrior of the Iron Division. And only in 1992, when Mstislav became Patriarch, did he return it to the already independent Ukraine. This is such a valuable relic that it is kept in the museum, and I advise you to visit this museum.
Our flag, as if a sacred fire, was kept in the hiding places of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, in the Gulag camps, in underground national liberation organizations, in centers of samizdat. The Empire tried to erase our flag from people's memory. For him, for our flag, they were sent to Siberia. And everywhere where a free Ukrainian lived, he had a yellow-blue or blue-yellow Ukrainian flag with him - not only as a memory of the past, but, most importantly, as faith and hope for the future,” Poroshenko announced.
After that, he mentioned the black and red banner of the UPA, which fought against Soviet troops during the Great Patriotic War, as a national symbol.
“Our flag is a living witness of victories and failures - failures, without which, unfortunately, no war occurs. From time to time it turns red and black: crimson from the Ukrainian blood that the Russian aggressor sheds on the Ukrainian-Donetsk black soils. Our state flag is a password by which we know who is ours and who is someone else’s,” Poroshenko said.
After the announcement of the speech, he visited an exhibition of Ukrainian military banners from the ATO zone, which was opened right there on Sophia Square.
The flag-raising ceremony was attended by several thousand people and several hundred security guards. After the president made his speech and visited the exhibition, he walked up to the fence and shook hands with several people in the crowd before getting into his car.
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