Ukraine To Skip This Year's WWII Victory Day Celebrations Amid Pandemic - Prime Minister

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Wednesday that there would be no Victory Day mass events on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II this year due to the coronavirus pandemic

KIEV (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 06th May, 2020) Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Wednesday that there would be no Victory Day mass events on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Ukrainian government on Monday announced that a nationwide lockdown would be extended until May 22, although certain social distancing measures would be eased on May 11.

"Mass events will not be held in Ukraine due to the quarantine measures. Therefore, we will not suspend [quarantine] so as not to put our citizens at risk. We will not hold mass events this year. The only request to the heads of regional state organizations personally or at the level of deputies is to provide individual well-wishings to the WWII veterans," Shmyhal said.

In 2015, Ukraine joined the Western tradition of celebrating the victory over Nazi Germany on May 8 as a remembrance and reconciliation day to commemorate the victims of WWII. The same year, the Ukrainian parliament approved a set of laws as part of the decommunization policy. It banned the use of Soviet symbols and provided for the demolition of monuments commemorating communist figures and renaming streets and inhabited areas named after them.

The 75th anniversary of the end of WWII is observed annually on May 8 in Europe and May 9 in the post-Soviet countries, where the period of war from 1941-1945 is referred to as the Great Patriotic War.