Members of the Lviv community are determined to resist any possible acts of provocation on 22 June, the seventieth anniversary of the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany. The Public Committee proposes “passive protest”.

To make sure that the violent events of 9 May in Lviv are not repeated, a number of active members of the community decided to draw up their plans for resistance. The idea of the initiative group “Memory without Aggression” is to resist provocateurs in a passive manner. According to one member, Oles Starovoit, “”We have oour own scenario for. We will make every endeavour to counter aggression and there are already enough people who are ready to behave in a dignified manner and restrain other people from provocation”.

The organizers do not exclude the possibility of using a sit-down form of protest in the case of active efforts by supporters of communist ideology, using red flags.

Two tragedies

According to the Public Committee’s Memorandum, “For Ukrainians in western regions the War began on 1 September 1939; it was reflected in the rapid installation of Soviet rule, mass deportation to Siberia and the atrocities of the NKVD, especially before the arrival of the Nazis. 22 June 1941 only replaced one tragedy with another. For Western Ukrainians the two tragedies are identified to the same degree with a flag carrying the swastika and the red flag”.

Members of the initiative which encompasses over 30 political parties and civic organizations explain that they have united to prevent discreditation of the Lviv Community and Lviv itself. They believe that the city is being provoked, manipulating conflict of historical memory.

“This is our first experience of more or less organized resistance from the entire community of provocation from outside. It is valuable because we are developing a mechanism for countering possible provocation in the city during further presidential and parliamentary elections”, well-known civic activist, publicist and Chief Editor of the Cultural Journal “Ї”.explains.

22 June has been declared a Day of Mourning in the city and there will be remembrance services at the places of former camps and places where people were tortured, and where the greatest number of people were killed during the Second World War. The national flag with black ribbons will be at half-mast,. 

It was announced on Tuesday that the court has, on the application of the Lviv City Council, banned all but official events on 22 June.