Today, August 29, the whole country commemorates the military and law enforcement officers who died in the struggle for independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the state and in the performance of official duties.
228 names of soldiers who died that day were read today in the memorial hall of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. The head of state together with the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Minister of Defense, other government officials and the families of the victims laid flowers to the Hall of Remembrance of the Fallen Heroes.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyi presented state awards to the families of the defenders.
Later, on Solomianska Square in Kyiv, the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs honored the memory of law enforcement officers in front of the Memorial to law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty.
"We remember with deep sadness our colleagues whose names are engraved on these plates. I want to say with all my heart that this list should not be supplemented. However, unfortunately, the harsh realities are different. New names appear on memory boards every year. During the 30 years of independence
of our state, 1,698 law enforcement officers have died in the line of duty, 464 of them have passed away since the beginning of the anti-terrorist operation and the
Joint Forces Operation in eastern Ukraine," said the Minister of Internal Affairs.
Denys Monastyrskyi also assured that the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs will do everything possible to bring the death toll closer to zero. This year,
memorial plaques were replenished with the names of four dead law enforcement officers. One of them, the commander of the Luhansk-1 battalion, police colonel
Serhii Hubanov, was awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine.
We will remind, on August 22, 2019 by the Presidential decree on August 29 the Day of memory of defenders of Ukraine who died in struggle for independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the state was officially established. At the state level, this day was celebrated for the third time. It was on this day in 2014, during the withdrawal from the encirclement near Ilovaisk, Donetsk region, that the anti-terrorist operation forces suffered the greatest combat losses as a result of the direct invasion of the territory of Ukraine by enemy
Russian troops. From the beginning of the attack on the city on August 10, 2014 and until the breakthrough from the "boiler" in the morning of August 29, 2014, 366 defenders were killed, 429 were wounded, 128 were taken prisoner, 158 went missing. The newly formed units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs took an active part in the operation together with the Armed Forces and suffered heavy losses: volunteer battalions of the National Guard and police: "Donbass', 'Azov", "Dnipro-1", "Myrotvorets", "Svityaz", "Kherson", "Ivano -Frankivsk" and "Shakhtarsk".
Eternal memory to the fallen Heroes of Ukraine!