Every year on the third Sunday of May, Ukraine observes the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repressions. We bow our heads in memory of the millions of people who suffered repressions, persecution, torture, arrests, and moral and physical destruction at the hands of the Soviet regime.

The Bykivnia Forest, Demianiv Laz, Sucha Balka, Piatykhatky, Rutchenkove Pole, Sandarmokh, and other sites will never be forgotten. These wounds will remain forever in our national memory. At the same time, each such scar serves as a reminder of what we are fighting for today: our people’s right to exist, and our own freedom, life, and dignity. 

Tragically, the millions of crimes committed by the Soviet regime were never properly condemned, investigated, or punished. It is this total impunity that has led to the mass Russian atrocities during the Russian Federation's current war of aggression against Ukraine.

On this day, we call upon the international community to remember Soviet crimes—every executed life, every broken destiny, every destroyed world. We call for a decisive condemnation of Soviet crimes and demand accountability for the atrocities of both the past and the present. We call for opposition to the Kremlin’s historical manipulations and the Russian propaganda's attempts to deny these crimes, obstruct their investigation, or downplay and trivialize them. We also urge support for independent historical inquiries and research, as well as the dissemination of facts regarding the criminal nature of the Soviet regime.

We demand that Moscow stop hiding the truth from the world, open its archives, and release documents regarding the crimes of the NKVD and other atrocities of the Soviet era. This will, among other things, make it possible to establish the true names of the perpetrators and their victims, and restore historical justice.

As Ukraine's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Andrii Sybiha, noted this week in Chișinău during the legal launch of the Special Tribunal: over the past centuries, Ukraine has suffered too many atrocities, oppression, occupations, world wars, genocides, Stalinist repressions, Chornobyl, and other crimes, but it has never seen true justice.

Today, Ukraine and the world have a real chance to break this vicious cycle of impunity. This is precisely why all current accountability mechanisms are so critical. These include the Special Tribunal, the Register of Damages, the Claims Commission, as well as investigations by the International Criminal Court, national justice, and the efforts of non-governmental organizations around the world.

Without justice for the victims of Moscow's crimes—both past and present—there will be no lasting peace, stability, or security on the European continent. The world has no moral right to fail.