Unity Day, observed on Jan. 22 in Ukraine as a state holiday, typically commemorates the 1919 unification of eastern and western Ukraine. The decree titled "On the Territories of the Russian Federation Historically Inhabited by Ukrainians" outlines a directive for the Ukrainian government to collaborate with experts and develop a plan aimed at researching, publicizing, and safeguarding the cultural identities of Ukrainians who have lived in the borders of modern-day Russia’s Krasnodar Krai, Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Kursk, Rostov regions that border Ukraine.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has said that the great state that existed on Ukrainian land since ancient times was tried many times to enslave and destroy, but it never allowed it to be done.
This is a story about massacres that occurred in Southern Ukraine between 26th October and 7th December, 1919. The victims, avowedly-pacifist German Mennonites, included several women and elderly people; in Eichenfeld, almost one third of the village population was killed, including a 65 year-old blind woman. All the massacres occurred in the vicinity of the Makhnovist army. And then, after six weeks, they stopped.