Almost unnoticed by the Ukrainian media and politicians, the 76th anniversary of the Lublin Agreement, an event that initiated the eviction of Ukrainians from the Transcarpathian region, has passed.
On September 9, 1944, the Soviet occupation administration of the Ukrainian SSR and the communist government of Poland signed an agreement on “voluntary exchange of the population.” In practice, the agreement became the starting point for the mass forcible deportation of Ukrainians from Nadsyannia, Kholmshchyna, Lemkivshchyna and Pidlyashshya from their ancestral lands. Half a million of our compatriots were forced to say goodbye to their homeland, moving from Zakerzon to the east.
We have no right to forget these tragic events in the history of our nation. The Lublin Agreement and the further de-Ukrainization of the Transcarpathian region are a clear example of what is happening to the enslaved people, whose fate is in the hands of the occupier.
In the status of a stateless nation living under the control of foreigners, we have always faced deportations, famines and mass shootings. Therefore, it is very important today to defend Ukrainian sovereignty by any means. After all, the cost of losing the state is always extremely high.