The Government has determined the list of those entitled to be buried at the National Military Memorial Cemetery
5 April 2024 12:16
ЕКСКЛЮЗИВ
As the war continues, the number of Ukrainian defenders killed is increasing every day. For the first time in the two years of the full-scale invasion, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has named the number of Ukrainian military casualties. This figure is 31,000 defenders, and unfortunately, it is increasing every day. To honour the memory of the fallen, Ukraine has begun work on the construction of the first National Military Memorial Cemetery. More about the project in a comment to Komersant ukrainskyi 
acting Minister of Veterans Affairs Oleksandr Porkhun told Kommersant.
The acting minister said that the Ministry of Veterans Affairs has begun preparatory work on the construction of the National War Memorial Cemetery, which will be located near the village of Hatne (Kyiv region).
The construction of the first phase is scheduled to begin in early June, and the first burials are expected to begin in late summer or early autumn. The total area will be 260 hectares.
“In total, it will be designed for up to 100,000 burials. The cemetery is being built for the future. Therefore, all the participants who will end their lives in their old age and die of natural causes have the right to be buried on the territory of the National Military Memorial Cemetery. That is, we are not making this history for today, but for the future. But we are trying to speed up these processes and put the first and second stages into operation, because there is a need to bury the guys now,”
– he said.
According to Oleksandr Porkhun, the Ministry is currently working on amendments to the law that will allow each region to establish a National Military Memorial Cemetery.
Currently, regions are trying to create their own municipal cemeteries. However, the ministry’s vision is to create memorial cemeteries in each region to bury heroes with honour.
“It will be unified. To have a burial, the family will have to submit a certain list of documents and write an application. And nothing more is required from the relatives. Then the state organises the process of delivering the body to the National Military Memorial Cemetery. The burial takes place there. The state institution of the National Military Memorial Cemetery is responsible for maintaining the cemetery in proper condition, and subsequently, for the installation of the tombstone. It will be unified – one for all, but it will contain the data of the buried person,”
– Porkhun summed up.
It should be noted that the law on the establishment of the National War Memorial Cemetery has been in preparation for several years. It was drafted by the Ministry of Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine with the participation of experts from the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, and the Ministry of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine. The Verkhovna Rada supported it on 31 May 2022.
on 23 February 2024, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved the procedure for using the funds provided in the state budget for the creation of the National Military Memorial Cemetery. This includes UAH 515 million for the construction and operation of the complex in 2024.
on 15 March, the Government approved a decision to locate the Military Memorial Cemetery and identified two plots in the Gatnenska community of Fastiv district, Kyiv region, for this purpose. More than 265 hectares will be transferred to NVMK, including one plot (about 8 hectares) located close to the Southern Cemetery and another (258 hectares) from Gatne village to the junction near Lisova Street along the Odesa Highway.
Author: Yelyzaveta Nesvit
