On November 17, 2020, a memorial cross “For your and our freedom” arrived in Lithuania from Ukraine, made by Ukrainian blacksmiths in memory of those who died in the struggle for freedom and independence of Ukraine and Lithuania.
The cross is made from fragments of mines and shells collected by Ukrainian volunteers in Donbass since 2014 when the Russian armed aggression against Ukraine started. The initiative to make the cross belongs to the Ukrainian servicemen wounded during the Anti-terrorist Operation/Joint Forces Operation in the east of Ukraine, who received medical rehabilitation funded by the Lithuanian government in one of the military medical institutions of the Republic of Lithuania.
The memorial cross handing over ceremony was attended by the Ambassador of Ukraine to Lithuania Volodymyr Yatsenkivskyi, co-author of the project and representative of the military rehabilitation center of the Lithuanian Ministry of Defence Ramūnas Šerpatauskas, representatives of the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, diplomats of the Embassy of Ukraine in Lithuania. During the event, the Ambassador of Ukraine gave an interview to the Lithuanian national television and radio company “LRT”.
Upon arrival in Lithuania, the memorial cross "For your and our freedom" will be delivered to the War Museum of the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense in Kaunas, where it will be displayed for public after cancellation of quarantine restrictions. In the future, it is planned to organize an exhibition of the memorial cross in the cities of Vilnius, Klaipeda, Druskininkai and others, and afterwards – it shall be installed on the legendary Hill of Crosses near Šiauliai. The tradition of installing memorial crosses by servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who undergo medical rehabilitation in Lithuania, was initiated on April 19, 2017, by the Embassy of Ukraine in the Republic of Lithuania and supported by the Military Rehabilitation Centre of the Lithuanian Armed Forces in Druskininkai – a medical institution where Ukrainian heroes undergo medical rehabilitation. 29 memorial crosses have been installed up to now.