In the morning, many people – Maidan activists, civil society members, military personnel, veterans of the war with Russia – gathered at the Alley of the Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred to honor the memory of the fallen, noble Knights of Ukraine, who became our Heavenly Warriors
Candles were lit, lights shone, and – flowers. A multitude of flowers. A communal prayer led by priests. We raise sincere words of gratitude and sorrow to the Almighty. We pray in the local church of Archangel Michael and the Ukrainian New Martyrs.
Dozens of paper angels are hung on the branches of trees that witnessed the shooting of unarmed protesters.
0 We remember the Maidan, when millions of compatriots took to the streets and squares to say: we are not livestock, we want to live as in the civilized world, we oppose the Russian feudal yoke. For this, the best sons and daughters of our nation gave their lives. We kneel before the Heavenly Hundred, bowing our heads low before those who were mutilated by Yanukovych's gang. It pains us that a fierce war continues with the Russian horde, that our soldiers are dying on the front lines, and that peaceful cities and villages are under the strikes of Russian rockets. Ukraine bravely fights for its freedom, for independence.
1 Ukrainians took to the Maidan because they sought justice, so that no one would ever encroach on their freedoms, and so that under no circumstances would they be under the oppression of the Moscow Kremlin.
2 The Maidan convincingly demonstrated that freedom is sacred for Ukrainians, that the spirit of the struggle for independence is embedded in the genes of our indomitable, heroic, and self-sacrificing people.
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