First joint memorial unveiled for Soviet soldiers and fighters of OUN-UPA

The memorial in the village of Krykhivtsi in the Ivano-Frankivsk region was unveiled on Sunday, 2 September, to mark 586 years of the village’s existence.  This is the first memorial in Ukraine remembering fallen soldiers of both the Soviet Army and of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists – Ukrainian Resistance Army [UPA from the Ukrainian). 

According to the village’s Mayor Vasyl Vladin:, the place for the memorial was allocated back in 1992. In his words: “We are perhaps the first in Ukraine who have united the fallen in battle, and we call on all to refrain from fermenting dissent within the Ukrainian nation. This is our history and nobody should speculate on it.”

The memorial was erected via donations from members of the public and sponsors. The names of villagers who gave their lives for Ukraine are carved in stone on the memorial. The memorial grave holds the last earthly remains of 44 Soviet soldiers and 16 fighters of UPA and the sichovi striltsy.

Vasyl Vladin believes that with this memorial there should be a uniting of Ukraine and reconciliation of veterans of the Soviet Army and of the Ukrainian Resistance Army. He stresses that “constant enmity must end if we are to build a Ukrainian State.”

Unfortunately, the Head of the UPA Fraternity for the Carpathian area Fotiy Volodymyrsky has stated that “the UPA will never be reconciled with NKVD people who during the War tortured and murdered resistance fighters.  That cannot be forgotten”.