On November 21, Ukraine commemorates the Day of Dignity and Freedom. 

On this day, with an interval of nine years, the two most massive protests in modern Ukraine began: in 2004 - the Orange Revolution, in 2013 - the Revolution of Dignity.

This day symbolizes Ukraine's commitment to the ideals and principles of building a democratic state and the ideas of freedom.

This year's Day of Dignity and Freedom is special for the citizens of Ukraine, because when we recall the Maidan events, we are bound to talk about the war. And speaking of the war, we cannot forget the Maidan as a place where Ukrainians learned to defend their dignity and freedom, the independence of their Motherland, its European choice of development. The Revolution of Dignity influenced the activation of civil society and the development of the volunteer movement in Ukraine.

Since 2014, when this Day was established, Ukrainians have been celebrating it in conditions of war. The first volunteer units to defend the Eastern Ukrainian lands in 2014 take their roots from the Revolution of Dignity. Unfortunately, many of those who fought at Maidan perished defending Donetsk, Mariupol, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, and other Ukrainian cities and villages.

At the end of February 2014, during the Revolution of Dignity, security forces shot protesters in the centre of Kyiv. The dead participants of the protests were called the Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred. They include 107 people. We did not immediately realize that the murders of people on the streets of Kyiv in January-February 2014 were a harbinger of the war unleashed by Russia, which will hit the South and East of Ukraine in the spring of that year, and in February 2022 - all of Ukraine.

Russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine turned our state into a kind of Ukraine-wide Maidan with its basic principles of self-organization, consolidation, and mutual aid.

In 2022, Russia entered the territory of Ukraine with the desire to seize Kyiv in three days, but did not take into account the spirit of freedom, this choice of our citizens became one of the key factors that made it impossible to implement the enemy's plans.

Both Maidans and the current war are united by the fact that they are the result of progress and at the same time a catalyst for further changes in Ukraine. In addition, they changed the public discourse, in which such concepts as "society", "heroes", "culture" and "freedom" became mainstream.

We believe that the victorious spirit - the spirit of Freedom, those virtues and values that were hardened on the Maidans, will lead Ukraine to victory.

We stood ground at Maidan so we will win the war!