What did Ukraine's parliament and public mark on 8 November 2018?
A look back at a parliamentary resolution on the deportations from Poland, set against two events in the preceding days.
What was on Ukraine's public agenda on 8 November 2018? On that date the Verkhovna Rada adopted a resolution on marking, at state level, the 75th anniversary of the start of the deportation of Ukrainians from Poland, which took place in 1944–1951.
The resolution was the formal act of the day. It placed the remembrance of those deportations within the state's official commemorations.
The days before
Two other developments had already shaped the public mood. On 4 November 2018, Kateryna Handziuk, an anti-corruption activist, died of injuries she had suffered in an acid attack in Kherson on 31 July. Her death was reported as part of the wider discussion of corruption in Ukraine.
On 3 November 2018, President Petro Poroshenko signed an agreement on cooperation with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
A mixed picture
Taken together, the reports from those days show the Rada dealing with historical memory, the president concluding a cooperation agreement with the head of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and the death of an activist whose case drew attention to the issue of corruption. The resolution of 8 November 2018 was one item in that sequence.
