Remembrance Day of the Heavenly Hundred Heroes
On February 20, Remembrance Day of the Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred is marked in Ukraine. This day is to honor the participants of the events on the Maidan during the Revolution of Dignity. This Revolution became a point of no return for the fight for freedom and democracy in pursuit of EU membership.
February 18-22, 2014, became the most tragic time during the Revolution — the momentum of a real battle, when people were attacked, shot and beaten, ultimately leading to the ousting of the president and his government. On the night of 21st/22n of February, Viktor Yanukovych departed from Kyiv, and days later he had fled the country.
February 20 became a culmination of this tragic date when 48 protesters were killed and fatally wounded in the center of the Ukrainian capital. Totally, ‘The Heavenly Hundred’ is the 107 people who were killed by Berkut police during the revolution. This term is known and used by Ukrainians. The streets and squares in dozens of cities were named in honor of the Heavenly Hundred. They were people of different nationalities, age groups, gender, and educational backgrounds; they came from various regions of Ukraine and from abroad, successful entrepreneurs and poor pensioners, scientists, artists, students, and activists.
In Ukraine, on this day, people traditionally remember the Heavenly Hundred as a symbol of the struggle for freedom. Many come to the avenue of the Heavenly Hundred in the center of Kyiv and light up symbolic rays of dignity in paying tribute to the dead.
Today, the fight for the goal they died for goes on, and the struggle continues in Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine.
