Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has awarded orders of the Heaven’s Hundred to three foreigners killed during the Revolution of Dignity (protests on Maidan) in January-February – citizen of Belarus Mikhail Zhyzneuski and citizens of Georgia Zurab Khurtsiya and David Kipiani.
Petro Poroshenko signed the appropriate document whe he was meeting with the parents of Mikhail Zhyzneuski, the presidential press service reports.
The Ukrainian leader thanked Mr and Mrs Zhyzneuski for bringing up a hero and promised that Ukrainians will always remember him.
“Your son is a real hero. He gave the most valuable thing he had – his life. And he gave it not only for the freedom of Ukraine, but for freedom and democracy throughout Europe and the world,” Poroshenko stressed.
Nina Zhyzneuskaya, Mikhail’s mother, said that a lot of people in Belarus call her son ‘a bandit and Nazi’. Someone keeps taking away a Ukrainian flag from Mikhail’s grave, she added. The woman suggested that awarding the title of Hero of Ukraine would bring about a change for the better.
According to Poroshenko, he is set to do his best to award such title to Mikhail Zhyzneuski, but currently the law forbids to give it to foreigners. The head of state expressed hope the Ukrainian parliament would adopt necessary amendments soon.
Mikhail ‘Loki’ Zhyzneuski left Belarus in 2005 and lived in the town of Bila Tserkva near Kyiv. He was shot dead on the morning of January 22 inHrushevskoho Street. Mr Zhyzneuski was an activist of Ukrainian organisation UNA-UNSO (The Ukrainian National Assembly – Ukrainian People’s Self-Defense). He was buried near the village of Znamya Pracy (Flag of Labour), Homel region.
