Deputies from the Opposition Bloc faction introduced a bill to lift the ban on the use of the Victory Banner in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. "This is a banner of 10 million Ukrainians who died at the front, and this is their banner and their holiday!" the deputy head of the faction Aleksander Vilkul said, TASS reports. On April 9, 2015, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a package of laws on "the decommunization process" of Ukrainian society. They condemned the communist past of the country, the documents prohibit Soviet symbols and recognize the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army as fighters for the independence of Ukraine.
This year, the 'Immortal Regiment' rally initiated by Moscow, which was held not only in Russia and the CIS countries, but also the far abroad, caused a mixed assessment in the West. In particular, there were opinions that the action is a manifestation of the militarization of Russian society.
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova tried to explain the reasons for such an attitude: "People who do not speak Russian, or misinterpret the word 'regiment', may think that the issue is about some kind of a paramilitary march or a military regiment march. As you know, this is not the case. It is a civil society campaign, which has nothing to do with militarism. I think it’s an all-out pacifist drive. I believe it is all about an attempt by civil society to continue, from generation to generation, the memory of the Second World War, and the memory of each individual whose families celebrate their contribution to victory. This is all done to ensure that there’s no anonymity, so that the Second World War soldiers do not remain some 'impersonal crowd', and we understand what exactly each of them did. Many people now say that the Second World War is mythologised and generalised. Of course, mythologising and generalisation will invariably take place, as the Second World War is a major event that changed world history. However, people were walking, holding pictures of their relatives, precisely to remember the individuals behind the overall war effort. Perhaps, a plain misunderstanding of the phrase 'Immortal Regiment' is the first reason for people passing such judgments. They may incorrectly translate it to begin with."
Zakharova named "deep-rooted hatred for our country" as a second possible reason. "In my opinion, hatred is a powerful emotion, and getting rid of it is a challenge. It seems to me that some people hate much stronger than they love. My advice? Just get rid of this hatred for Russia and our people. There’s no need to love us – we will, probably, survive without these people loving us – but hatred is a destructive emotion. We do not have any specific numbers or facts, as it was a civil society drive. Speaking about foreign countries, our compatriots, the citizens of the Russian Federation who live and work in other countries, took part in these marches. Also participating in these marches were citizens of other countries who are in no way related to modern Russia, whose ancestors were either originally from Russia, or fought shoulder to shoulder with the Soviet troops. Some of the march participants did not have anything to do with Russia, but joined in because they share the feelings of the organisers of this event".
