Veteran with prosthetic leg goes on hunger strike on Maidan over arbitrariness in construction of war memorial near Kyiv
The issue of commemorating the war in Ukraine always causes complex, often polar reactions. The question of who has the right to make decisions about the place and format of commemoration of the fallen has been repeatedly raised in society. Is the architectural solution enough? Does the family of the dead have a say, or does the state decide everything? In May 2025, these questions took concrete form — in the form of a protest that cannot be ignored. A public hunger strike of a veteran who lost a leg near Irpen began on Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kyiv. He does not demand anything for himself, but raises a public question about the limits of the powers of the authorities in the matter of memory.
A war veteran with the call sign “Latish” started a hunger strike on Maidan Nezalezhnosti, near the people’s memorial to the fallen defenders of Ukraine. The fighter, who lost a limb after being seriously wounded near Irpen, went to a protest rally. About this reported veteran, lawyer and public activist Oleg Simoroz.
He stated that the reason for the protest is arbitrariness in the construction of the National Military Memorial Cemetery in the forest between the villages of Gatne and Markhalivka near Kyiv. Simoroz noted that the authorities, despite years of discussions, decided to implement the project without the consent of local residents, families of the victims, architects and representatives of the veteran community.
“Participant of hostilities, seriously wounded near Irpen, and actually a veteran on a prosthesis with the call sign “Latish”, is just now starving in Kyiv near the people’s memorial to those who died on the Independence Square.
The reason is simple. The central executive power at all levels put to the public’s opinion the issue of the construction of the National Military Memorial Cemetery in the forest between the villages of Gatne and Markhalivka near Kyiv.
There they did everything as it should not have been done – they spat on the opinion of the locals, veterans, families of the victims and even architects who insisted on an open architectural competition. Instead, again the mafia, schemes and deriban. Over the years, there have been constant conflicts and clashes to which the authorities did not react stupidly, but simply avoided healthy communication.” – Simoroz is indignant.
He stated that her main goal now is to rush to start official military burials in order to legalize her project.
Simoroz emphasized that in this situation there should be an immediate public reaction of the top military-political leadership of the state and the dismissal of the Minister of Veterans’ Affairs.
He emphasized that the memorial itself is needed, but not in this form:
“In this form, the project of the National Military Memorial Cemetery has no right to exist! Such communication is the bottom!
There should be a memorial! But involve veterans, the families of the dead and actually hold an open architectural competition!”.
So, in the center of the capital, a veteran with a prosthesis is starving – not for benefits and awards, but for the elementary right to participate in deciding the fate of the common space of memory.
Photo: facebook/ Oleg Simoroz
