Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation in 2025

Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation in Ukraine

Ukraine has added May 8th, or Victory in Europe Day, to its list of public holidays in a law dated May 29th 2023.

The law (No. 3107-IX, Ukrainian) refers to the day as “Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in the Second World War of 1939-1945.”

This holiday began in 2015 to honour those who lost their lives in conflicts including the second world war. In Ukraine, May 8th is not a public holiday, but May 9th (Victory Day in many countries of the former Soviet Union) remains a day off.

When is VE Day?

Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day or VE Day) is commemorated on May 8th.

It is a national holiday in France known as 'Victoire 1945' or 'La fête de la victoire' and the day is also celebrated as a holiday in several other countries in Europe.

History of VE Day

Victory in Europe Day marks May 8th 1945, on which day the second world war Allies formally accepted an unconditional surrender by the armed forces of Germany and the end of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich, after six years of the bloodiest conflict in human history.

On April 30th 1945, Hitler had committed suicide during the Battle for Berlin.

The surrender of Germany was authorized by his replacement, President of Germany, Karl Dönitz.

The administration headed up by Dönitz was known as the Flensburg government. Hitler had committed suicide a week earlier leaving Grand Admiral Donitz of the German army to admit defeat.

The act of military surrender was signed on May 7th 1945 in Reims, France, and May 8th 1945 in Berlin, Germany.

It was not until August that year that Japan surrendered after the US dropped the first two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Second World War came to an end six years and one day after it started on September 2nd 1945, when official surrender documents were signed on the deck of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay by the Japanese.

In 2020, the Early May Bank Holiday in the United Kingdom was moved to May 8th to mark the 75th anniversary of V-E Day. The same change happened in 1995 to mark the 50th anniversary of V-E Day. 

In Russia and some other East European countries, this event is marked on Victory day on May 9th. It is a day later as the treaty was signed at 10.30 pm in the evening in Reims, to come into effect at 11.01 pm. As Russia is one hour ahead of Western Europe, this meant it was already May 9th in Russia.

Initially, this day was celebrated on May 9th in Slovakia but is now observed on May 8th.

Did you know?

The Times newspaper front page was reserved for adverts until 1966, so the end of the second world war on VE Day was page 6 news.

In Ukraine from 2015, May 8th was designated as a day of Remembrance and Reconciliation, but it is not a public holiday.

Traditions in Ukraine

Since 2014, the red poppy has become the symbol of the Day of Reconciliation and Victory Day in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance asks Ukrainians to wear this international symbol of the memory of victims of all military and civil armed conflicts on May 8th.