For many, the end of World War II marked the end of World War II. World War II, not freedom. In Ukraine, and specifically in Crimea, renewed Soviet control, repression, deportations, and silence on national histories followed after the defeat of Nazi Germany.

On the occasion of Europe Day on 9 May, we are hosting an event in collaboration with Ukraine House that examines liberation as an unequal and often controversial experience.

Together, we reflect on how liberation was experienced differently in Europe and what this history can teach us today. From a Ukrainian perspective, we turn to a past marked by occupation and persistent resistance – and the difficult questions that still surround it. From the perspective of the Crimean Tatars, we confront the deportation of 1944, where “liberation” instead became the beginning of exile and a struggle for survival.

We also place these experiences in a broader European context, where the meaning of liberation ranged from relief to confrontation, and where its consequences continue to shape political and historical narratives.