On January 29, the panel of judges of the Cassation Administrative Court of the Supreme Court of Ukraine rejected the complaints of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration and the administration of the memorial cemetery and confirmed the decisions of previous instances on the seizure of land.
In the 1st separate assault regiment of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, the Ukrainian Armed Forces called the judges’ verdict “blasphemy.”
“Memory is not canceled by resolutions. The dead are not “transferred” – they are revered. Our brothers-in-arms, who returned to the shield, should not become hostages of empty disputes and outright blasphemy,” the fighters wrote on Facebook.
The command of the Air Assault Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces called for an immediate review of the decision.
“The memory of the defenders of Ukraine was properly respected, and not buried under stacks of court papers… Decisions based solely on legal formalism are a painful blow to those who have already given the most dear to the state,” the command noted, noting that hundreds of mothers, wives and children of the fallen DShV soldiers are waiting for a resolution to the situation.
“Brain explosion. Gentlemen in robes! Next, there should have been a bunch of letters addressed to the judges in French, and even with a sexual bias, with calls to come to their senses, with threats to return, and so on. You guessed it, stewards of fate. I promised and will not get involved in politics. I did not promise that we will tolerate abomination and desecration of the memory of our fallen soldiers. We remember everyone by name. Heroes and offenders,” commented the commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces, Robert Brovdi (Madyar), on the decision of the Armed Forces.
The 82nd Separate Air Assault Bukovina Brigade stated that the right of the dead to a decent, honorable burial “cannot be a mistake in design.”
“When the court cancels the creation of the National Memorial due to procedural details, this is more than a formality… The Pantheon is not concrete and not fences. It is about a state that has memory. We urge everyone on whom the further resolution of the situation depends not to forget that the war continues,” the brigade fighters wrote on Facebook.
Context
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in October 2022 approved the creation of the Ministry of Veterans of the NVMK.
During construction, Ukraine will follow the example of Arlington Cemetery in the United States, then-Minister of Veterans Affairs Yulia Laputina said in an interview with CNN in April 2023. “This will be a memorial not only to our heroes of the Russian-Ukrainian war, but also to all the defenders and defenders of our country, participants in Ukraine’s struggle for its independence in different historical periods,” she clarified.
On August 19, the Cabinet of Ministers adopted a resolution on the construction of the National War Memorial Cemetery in the Gatno community near Kiev.
On December 8, 2023, the Rada adopted the law necessary for the construction and operation of the NVMK. “Construction will be carried out in several stages. In the first, a sector of traditional burials, a columbarium, a square where farewell to fallen defenders and defenders will be held, and the necessary structures for organizing burials,” the government said in a statement on February 23, 2024.
On March 15, the Cabinet of Ministers adopted a decree on the location of the NVMK in the Gatno rural community of the Fastovsky district of the Kyiv region.
