12.04.2017, Ukraine.
A proposal to the country’s President, Pyotr Poroshenko, to change the date Cosmonautics Day is to be celebrated has been submitted to the Ukrainian government. Currently, the date is the same for both Russia and Ukraine. Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Vyacheslav Kirilenko introduced this proposal on April 12, TASS reports.
In his speech at the cabinet meeting, Kirilenko stated,“We must appeal to the president of Ukraine, that he issue an executive order moving it to a different date, just as he did by moving the Day of the Defender of the Fatherland from February 23 to October 14*, thus creating the Day of the Defender of Ukraine. This is a proper and fundamental process.”
According to Kirilenko, this new date should, “change the worldview on what Ukrainians have accomplished” in the recent history.
Cosmonautics Day is celebrated in Russia on April 12 in honor of the first manned space flight in the history of humanity. During the flight, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin spent about two hours in near-earth space. Another famous cosmonaut, Neil Armstrong of the United States, said about Yuri Gagarin, “He called us all into space”, thereby confirming the universal international significance of the Soviet cosmonaut’s feat.
* October 14 is also traditionally considered to be the day on which the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA, organization banned in Russia) was founded – the military and political subdivision of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN, organization banned in Russia), known for their crimes against civilians, primarily Poles and Jews, during the Great Patriotic War
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
