An important historical reminder

Seventy-two years ago, during World War II, Koriukivka near Chernihiv underwent the largest in scale Nazi punitive action against civilians. The invaders burned the city to the ground and killed almost 7,000 of its inhabitants. On March 2, people gathered in mourning near the Memorial complex. A minute of silence was held in tribute to those who died in March 1943, as well as to the civilians killed over the past year in the eastern Ukraine and to every fallen Ukrainian soldier from Chernihiv oblast. Serhii Zhurman, acting head of Chernihiv Oblast State Administration, compared the tragic historical events with today’s crisis. Like the Nazis back then, who had their revenge on the civilians, unable to overcome the people’s resistance, the enemies of Ukraine today are shelling residential districts in Donbas, arrange terrorist attacks in Odesa and Kharkiv. Volodymyr Viatrovych, head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, explained why the truth about Koriukivka tragedy had long been hidden. Only several years ago it became acknowledged on the state and international levels.

Mykola Zvieriev, chairman of the Chernihiv oblast council, who also had a word on the meeting, emphasized that Ukrainians of today, waging their own Patriotic War in liberation against Russian invaders and their collaborators, should regard the Koriukivka tragedy as an important historical reminder – the people unwilling to resist the invader will be exterminated. After the rally had ended, a memorial litia was conducted at Hai tract, on the place where the victims of the massacre had been reburied.