Оn the Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in the Second World War, the third President of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, visited the Museum of War.
Museum Director General Yuriy Savchuk first introduced Viktor Andriiovych to the exhibition «Our Victory». This exposition reveals the significance of the Ukrainian contribution to the defeat of Nazism and the tragedy of a stateless people, reflected in the definition «defeated victors» implemented by the museum team. At the exhibition, Viktor Yushchenko laid flowers, honouring the memory of millions of Ukrainians – military and civilian – who perished during the years of the war.
A special part of the visit was the tour of the Museum’s Hall of Memory, where a collective portrait of the wartime generation is recreated through photographs of Second World War participants. Among the photos, Viktor Yushchenko found materials about his own family – photographs of his father, grandfather, and father-in-law – and paid tribute to their memory.
The third President also had the opportunity to familiarise himself with the Museum’s contemporary projects on the russian-Ukrainian war – an exhibition dedicated to the Russian Volunteer Corps and the concept of the Museum of Modern Military Technologies, the outlines of which are already taking shape through the exhibited aerial UAVs, sea drones, and ground robotic systems.
Concluding the visit, the third President spoke with the Museum’s staff. He noted that the institution’s activities are critically important for shaping state memory policy. “This is work on our subjectivity, and it is extremely relevant and important today,” emphasised Viktor Yushchenko. As a memento from the Museum, Director General Yurii Savchuk presented the third President, a native of the Sloboda Ukraine region, with the museum publication «Historical Portrait of Sloboda Ukraine: Kursk region», which, through artefacts and historical sources, reflects the history of north-eastern Sloboda Ukraine: from the settlement of the Kursk, Belgorod, and Voronezh regions by Ukrainians in the second half of the 17th century to the historical events of the Kursk operation of the Defence Forces of Ukraine during the current war.
Let us preserve the memory of the past. Let us protect our present. Let us build a European and democratic future for Ukraine.
