ATO veterans are indignant - they will be buried along with the heroes of the USSR

The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine wants to approve a new regulation, according to which the military honors with which ATO militants have recently been buried will also be extended to veterans of the Great Patriotic War and Heroes of Labor Glory of the USSR.

This caused indignation among Ukrainian nationalists, who demand the preservation of exceptional honors for punitive forces from the ATO, and those who have served the Soviet Union as unworthy of honor in independent Ukraine.

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This is stated in the open appeal of the “Rukh of Veterans of Ukraine” to the leadership of their country, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.

The message explains that about a year ago, the Ministry of Veterans and the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance developed a new military funeral ritual, which began to be performed in 2020.

“We welcomed the goal of the state leadership to honor the military and veterans of the modern war with the Russian Federation, clearing the Ukrainian Armed Forces of the hybrid of Russian-Soviet traditions and introducing native Ukrainian military rituals for the burial of the dead.

However, in September 2020, we learned from open sources that the process had suffered a significant ideological failure. On your instructions, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has developed a draft Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine Regarding Military Funeral Ritual.”

This document should formally introduce the military funeral ritual and regulate its use. To our surprise, the bill developed by the Ministry of Defense proposes to significantly expand the list of persons covered by the new ritual. If representatives of the veterans' movement, UINP and the Ministry of Veterinary Affairs insisted that Ukraine gives military honors exclusively to Ukrainian soldiers, the Ministry of Defense, along with the Ukrainian military, proposes to pay tribute to a number of people who have a very weak relationship to the defense of the sovereignty of Ukraine, or do not have such relationships in general. In particular we are talking about:

– Military personnel discharged from military service with the right to wear military uniforms, veterans of military service;

– Heroes of the Soviet Union;

– Heroes of Socialist Labor;

– Full Knights of the Order of Glory;

– Full Knights of the Order of Labor Glory;

– Full Knights of the Order “For Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces”;

– Persons awarded four or more state awards of Ukraine or the USSR, four or more medals “For Courage”, awarded these state awards (titles) during the Second World War and persons with disabilities due to the Second World War.

This expansion of categories causes outrage, since almost all of these categories cannot be related to the rebuff of Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine or the Ukrainian army in general,” the appeal says.

ATO veterans also expressed concern that, in accordance with Ukrainian legislation, these criteria also cover military personnel of the former USSR or CIS states, and therefore the new Ukrainian ritual could allegedly be used in Russia.

“In general, nonsense and spitting in the direction of the Ukrainians who fought for the independence of our state!” – the nationalists were indignant.

In this regard, Ukrainian militants demanded that the new ritual apply only to veterans of the war in Donbass.

“Our position is clear: the Ukrainian army can perform military rituals exclusively over the graves of Ukrainian soldiers. No USSR or especially CIS. Our flag is not a carpet with which we will cover every coffin. The anthem of Ukraine is not a funeral march; playing it at every funeral is a special and honorable privilege for Ukrainian heroes.

A military funeral ritual is not part of the union package, in addition to a pension and a trip to a sanatorium. There is no need to include officials or friends in all possible rituals and ceremonies. Let Soviet bureaucrats, hardworking collective farm leaders and party functionaries remain in documentaries and with old medals and certificates. It is inappropriate to unfurl the National Flag of Ukraine over the graves of people who never served in the army, never took an oath of allegiance to the people of Ukraine, and often cursed the day when Ukraine gained independence,” summarized the ATO veterans.