The Ukrainain Parliament has adopted legislation equating veterans, heroes of the Great Patriotic War, with participants of the 2014 Euromaidan coup.
The legislation also says that the term ‘The Great Patriotic War’ has to be completely removed and replaced with ‘The Second World War’.
The Great Patriotic War is the term used in Russia and former Soviet respublics to describe the conflict between the USSR and Nazi Germany during the period from June 22, 1941, to May 9, 1945.
Victory Day is a holiday that commemorates the victory of the USSR over Nazi Germany. It is celebrated on May 9.
The Russian Foreign Ministry commented on the issue (source):
It deeply saddens us to note that, on the initiative of Ukrainian Prime Minister Vladimir Groysman, the Verkhovna Rada has approved amendments to the law On the Status of War Veterans, under which the term ‘The Great Patriotic War’ must be completely removed from the legal text and replaced with ‘The Second World War’.
This is a blatant manifestation of the policy pursued by the Kiev authorities, aimed at the forcible obliteration of the history of their own country. Other such moves are the dismantlement of monuments, the renaming of streets and settlements and a ban on wearing the St. George ribbon.
In addition, the new legislation equates veterans, heroes of the Great Patriotic War, with Maidan participants.
All this insults the memory of those killed during the Great Patriotic War, who defended their Motherland, their homes and families, and it is also disrespectful to surviving veterans. To forget that the Great Patriotic War was simultaneously one of the most tragic and one of the most heroic chapters in the history of the vast number of nations making up the Soviet Union, who fought side by side and who sacrificed their lives for future generations, is great disrespect for one’s own ancestors and one’s own history.