April 23 (UPI) — The government of Ukraine has announced that it will create a national military cemetery and museum complex in Bykivnia, near the capital.
Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, announced Thursday in a post on Facebook that the city council “started the procedure” for the creation of the National Military Memorial Cemetery.
“The capital is ready in all possible ways to contribute to the creation of a memorial to our heroes,” Klitschko said.
Klitschko said that the city owns about 20 acres of land in the area that will be used for the cemetery, in addition to 222 owned by the federal government.
“The Ministry of Veterans is responsible for the creation of the Ukrainian National Military Memorial Cemetery. In accordance with the Government’s action plan, we have created a state institution that will take care of all these processes,” First Deputy Minister of Veteran Affairs Oleksandr Porhun said in a statement on April 14.
“A plot of land for the construction of a cemetery has already been approved. According to the agreed construction schedule, burials will begin in the first row of the National Military Memorial Cemetery at the end of autumn this year.”
Yulia Laputina, Ukraine’s minister of veterans’ affairs, told CNN that the country plans to model the cemetery after Arlington National Cemetery in the United States.
“I really appreciated this incredible memorializing and respect for the people who defended your country,” said Laputina, who is also a veteran.
“It will be the memorial not only for those people who will be buried there from the battles of Russian-Ukrainian war, for the heroes, but also it will be the memorial for all of the defenders of our country when Ukraine was fighting for the independence in different historical periods.”