«The greatest dangers are internal strife, mutual strife and otamanship, which stems from strife and has already led so much to the ruin and decline of all our hopes in our first attempt to build a Ukrainian state. [...] Ukraine does not need other enemies, when Ukrainians themselves are enemies of Ukrainians who hate each other and are not even ashamed of that hatred! .. As long as there is no Christian unity between us, so long the weakest opponent will be stronger than us !»
Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky
Today, January 22, we celebrate the Unity Day of Ukraine. This holiday is established in memory of the proclamation of the Act of Unification of the Ukrainian People's Republic and the Western Ukrainian People's Republic, which happened on January 22, 1919. Today we also celebrate the proclamation of independence of the Ukrainian People's Republic by the IV Universal of the Ukrainian Central Council an unattainable dream, it was embodied in political documents that can be called fateful. They are the basis of Ukrainian statehood.
Was the path from independence and unification straightforward and easy? Of course it wasn't "... There is a long distance from the document to the establishment of statehood. The Act of Reunion was a declaration of intent rather than a reflection of the real state of affairs, as evidenced by further losses. However, the probability of this act was not questioned by our parents and grandparents. Today, we must take a sober look at those 100 years and pass a test of conscience, ”wrote Myroslav Marynovych, a dissident, human rights activist, and vice-rector of Ukrainian Catholic University. "As now, those revolutionary events took place under the circumstances of Russian military aggression," said historian and politician Vladimir Vyatrovych. - The main lesson of this event is that independence and sovereignty are the key to the nation's survival. The loss of independence as a result of the Bolshevik occupation in the long run led to millions in losses among Ukrainians from the Holodomor, repression and war. "
"Unity is the unification of all lands inhabited by a particular nation in a single territory; spiritual consolidation of all inhabitants of the state, unity of citizens, regardless of their nationality. Finally, catholicity is inseparable from statehood, sovereignty and real independence of the people - the foundation for building a democratic state ", - this is the meaning of the term "catholicity" given by the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory.
So it's not just about the territory "from Sian to the Don" and not so much about purely Ukrainians "on their side", but about democracy, about their own and national identity of the peoples living in Ukraine, about resistance to Russian military aggression and hybrid war, about true freedom of religion, about the European vector of state development.
Here is what Myroslav Marynovych writes about this: “We often talk about unity as unification, where everyone should be the same. But we are unable to achieve such unity, even at the political level. We need unity that will enable everyone to preserve their own identity [...] All three of Ukraine’s newest revolutions - the Revolution on Granite, the Orange Revolution and the Revolution of Dignity - have largely united us into one political nation. However, the wound of the rift in eastern Ukraine is still bleeding and the configuration of a single country is still in question. "
Congratulations to you, dear Ukrainians, on the great holiday, people of all nations living in Ukraine, because we are all representatives of the Ukrainian political nation, we are Ukraine!