President: Ukraine is proud of its contribution to victory over Nazism

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko said this, speaking at the ceremony of taking the military oath by the young soldiers of the 101st separate security brigade of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"We are proud of the contribution of Ukrainians to the common victory and salvation of the world from the Nazi enslavement. Our people, exhausted by the pre-war collectivization, the Holodomor, the terror of the 1930s, lost every fifth son and a daughter in the worldwide human catastrophe," Poroshenko said.

He also recalled that Ukraine, by virtue of its geostrategic position, had become one of the main base areas of the World War II, and the regular troops had carried out active military operations on its territory for 35 months.

The President also noted that the marshals and generals of Ukrainian descent had led almost half of the 15 fronts, and, in general, about 300 Ukrainians had been among the Soviet generals involved in the World War II.

"However, I strongly believe that the Nazism was defeated by the soldiers, who fought not for Stalin, but for their homeland and their families," Poroshenko stressed.

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