This year, for the first time in recent years, the official events commemorating the anniversary of the Great Terror of 1937-1938, which take place at the Sandarmokh site and on the Solovetsky Islands, could not be attended by the Ukrainian delegation due to Russia’s aggression against our country.

Therefore, the Kyiv Society of Political Prisoners and Victims of Repression, under the leadership of Grigory Kutsenko and with the support of the Charity Foundation “Velyka Rodyna”, organized a “Farewell Across Ukraine” – visiting memorial sites primarily associated with Stalinist repressions, as well as other historically significant places for Ukrainians. The symbolic Cross Procession began in Kyiv and passed through nine regions: Kyiv, Cherkasy, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytskyi, Chernivtsi, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Rivne, Volyn, and Zhytomyr.

During the Farewell, its participants – Ukrainian political prisoners, victims of Stalinist repressions, descendants of the repressed, representatives of civil organizations – held meetings with local communities, laid wreaths and flowers at monuments and memorials of mass shootings, lit candles, and honored the memory of the victims with prayers and memorial services. They also paid tribute to the defenders of the Homeland who fell in 2014.