Collage of two photos (L-R): The 8th Guard of the Army of General Chuikov, Soviet Army, on the streets of Odesa, Ukraine, amid the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in April 1944. (Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images), Ukrainian soldiers at a checkpoint near the Odesa National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet in the center of Odesa, Ukraine, on March 18, 2022. (Nathan Laine/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The slogan "Never again" emerged in response to the Holocaust and other atrocities of World War II as a vow of humanity to prevent such horrific events from being repeated.
On May 8, the world marks Victory in Europe Day, celebrating 79 years since the unconditional defeat of Nazi Germany, and with it, the end to its crimes against humanity.
But for the third year in a row now, this day – meant to remind the public about the horrors and lessons of the past – is taking place as events strikingly similar unfold in Europe.
During Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Nazi forces occupied much of Soviet Ukraine, executing civilians, and destroying cultural heritage and infrastructure.
The same Ukrainian regions and cities that were once invaded by Nazis are now suffering from Russian attacks and deliberate killings.
A Nazi group of troops during the battles east of Kyiv, Ukraine, 1941. (State Archival Service of Ukraine)
Members of the Ukrainian military take a photograph in front of destroyed Russian military vehicles on a street in Bucha, Ukraine on April 06, 2022. The Ukrainian government has accused Russian forces of committing a "deliberate massacre" as they occupied and eventually retreated from Bucha, 25km northwest of Kyiv. Hundreds of bodies have been found in the days since Ukrainian forces regained control of the town. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
L: Nazi SS Special Commanders line up Jewish residents of Kyiv to execute them with guns and push them into a ditch, already containing bodies of victims, in Babyn Yar (Babyn Ravine), Kyiv, Ukraine, 1941. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images). R: A mass grave is seen behind a church in the town of Bucha, northwest of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 3, 2022. Ukraine and Western nations on Sunday accused Russian troops of war crimes after the discovery of mass graves and executed civilians in Bucha. City mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk told AFP that 280 other bodies had been buried in mass graves. One rescue official said 57 people were found in one hastily dug trench behind a church. (Sergei Supinsky / AFP via Getty Images)
Barricades and anti-tank hedgehogs in Kyiv, Ukraine, July-September, 1941. (State Archival Service of Ukraine)
A woman wearing a jacket passes by a hedgehog in an empty street amid the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in Kyiv, on March 26, 2022. (Mykhaylo Palinchak/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
L: Inscriptions of new addresses of Kyiv residents on the walls of houses destroyed by the Nazis in Kyiv, Ukraine, 1943. (State Archival Service of Ukraine) R: Inscriptions cover the walls in the school basement where Russian soldiers held 299 adults and 67 children for 28 days against their will, in Yahidne village, Chernihiv Oblast, northern Ukraine, Jan. 14, 2023. (Pavlo Bagmut / Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
A woman prepares food in the yard near her house in Podil, Kyiv, Ukraine, July, 1943. (State Archival Service of Ukraine)
People cook meals on fire outside their houses in Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 4, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Leon Klein/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
L: People bring water to a steam locomotive at the devastated railway station of Kharkiv, Ukraine, in 1943. (Heinrich Hoffmann / Getty Images) R: Workers repair damaged railway tracks next to a crater caused by a missile explosion after a Russian attack against Kharkiv on May 14, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Sergey Bobok/AFP via Getty Images)
Kyiv residents stand in front of the burning building in Kyiv, Ukraine, September 1941. (Wikimedia)
The residential building in Kyiv caught fire after the Russian army attacked the city with missiles and drones on Feb. 7, 2024. (Serhii Korovayny/The Kyiv Independent)
L: Frescoes of the destroyed Assumption Cathedral of the Kyiv Cave Monastery, Kyiv, Ukraine, 1943-1944. (State Archival Service of Ukraine) R: An interior view of the Transfiguration Cathedral heavily damaged by a Russian missile strike in Odesa, Ukraine, on July 23, 2023. The missile broke through the roof of the main Orthodox cathedral of the city, starting a fire. As a result of the attack, several cultural buildings were damaged in the historic center of Odesa, which had been recognized as a World Heritage site. Under an emergency procedure in January 2023, UNESCO added it to both the World Heritage List and the List of World Heritage in Danger. (Yan Dobronosov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
The 8th Guard of the Army of General Chuikov, Soviet Army, on the streets of Odesa, Ukraine, April 1944. (Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images)
Ukrainian soldiers at a checkpoint near the Odesa National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet in the center of Odesa, Ukraine, on March 18, 2022. (Nathan Laine/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
L: Residents of Porskalivka village look at their destroyed house in Poltava region, Ukraine, 1943. (State Archival Service of Ukraine) R: A city utility worker stands near a destroyed high-rise apartment building after a Russian missile attack in Poltava, Ukraine, on April 9, 2024. On the night of April 8, the Russian army attacked Poltava with missiles. The strike hit a two-story dormitory housing 30 people. As a result of the attack, 12 people were injured, among them two children. Three multi-story residential buildings and about 10 cars were also hit. (Bohdan Kazyrid/Suspilne Ukraine/JSC "UA:PBC"/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
View from the Dnipro Hydroelectric Station's left bank after the destruction of it by the Soviet forces in an attempt to halt the Nazi advance on Aug. 18, 1941. (State Archival Service of Ukraine)
A screen grab captured from a video shows the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant after the Russian forces blew it up in an attempt to halt the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the south, Kherson Oblast, on June 6, 2023. (Zelenskyy Social Media Account / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
L: Bodies of the Kharkiv residents lie on the streets after the Nazis recaptured Kharkiv, the biggest industrial city in eastern Ukraine, 1943. Inhabitants of the town defended their city and many perished in the fighting along with their soldiers. (Keystone/Getty Images) R: (Graphic content) Bodies of civilians lie on Yablunska Street in Bucha, northwest of Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 2, 2022, after the Russian army retreated from the city. The first body in the picture has been identified as Mykhailo Kovalenko, who was shot dead by Russian soldiers according to relatives interviewed by AFP. The bodies of at least 20 men in civilian clothes were found lying in a single street after Ukrainian forces retook the town of Bucha from Russian troops, AFP journalists said. In the following days, Ukrainian authorities discovered hundreds of bodies of civilians killed by Russian forces. (Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images)
German panzers roll through the streets of Kharkiv, having invaded the city, during World War II, Ukraine in 1942. (Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Firemen work to clear the rubble and extinguish a fire in a heavily damaged building after a Russian rocket exploded just outside it in Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, on March 14, 2022, amid the ongoing Russia invasion of Ukraine. The shelling killed 2 civilians and left one injured, according to local officials. (Sergey Bobok / AFP via Getty Images)
Irynka Hromotska is a photo editor at The Kyiv Independent. She received her MA in photojournalism from the Missouri School of Journalism as a Fulbright student. Irynka previously curated the “Fighting for Dignity” exhibition, highlighting the resilience of Ukrainians, interned at the Magnum Foundation, worked with Magnum Photos, and was an assistant photo editor for the FotoEvidence photo book “Ukraine: A War Crime.” Her photography has been featured in outlets like Radio Free Europe, Reuters, The New York Times, and The Guardian.
In her role at Kyiv Independent, Irynka actively fosters relationships with photojournalists covering Ukraine, with a particular focus on promoting long-form visual storytelling.
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