The display was dedicated to those from the Eastern bloc who somehow dared to protest against the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968.
Iryna Herashchenko called the exhibition place to be symbolic – the Independence Square (aka Maidan Nezalezhnostii), a place that became for Ukrainians a symbol of the struggle for freedom during the events of the Revolution of Dignity, a place where they commemorate and pay last respects to the soldiers who died in the east of Ukraine at the hands of the Russian occupants.
The First Vice-Speaker observed the courage of those who, in 1968, opposed the Soviet occupation by moulding the protest movements.
The politician thanked the representatives of the Czech Republic for the consistent and solid support of Ukraine in countering the foreign aggression of the Russian Federation. The Presidential envoy Iryna Herashchenko stressed the necessity of keeping the sanction pressure against the Russian Federation with the aim of de-occupation of the Crimea and the Donbas and releasing illegally detained Ukrainians.
In opening of the exhibition, there was also in attendance a member of the Parliament of Ukraine, the Commissioner of the President of Ukraine for the Affairs of Crimean Tatars Mustafa Dzhemilev, who had been one of those who also opposed the occupation of Czechoslovakia at that point in time. Mustafa Dzhemilev reminded the names of those who had suffered in the struggle for freedom of Czechoslovakia, in particular, the Czech student Jan Palach who committed an act of sacrificial suicide as a mark of protest against the occupation.
The First Vise-President of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic Miluse Horska thanked for organizing the exhibition on the Independence Square, where thousands of Ukrainians could see it. Miluse Horska pointed out that, despite a slew of scientific works and studies on the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968, this topic needs further elaboration and coverage to inform about the consequences of the totalitarian regime.
The opening of the exhibition was also attended by Hanna Hopko, MP, V. Viatrovych, the Head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, V.Kononenko, a deputy head of the SBU, R.Matula, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Czech Republic to Ukraine, and a religion scholar, historian I. Kozlovskyi.