11/25/2023 6:51 pm (current 11/25/2023 6:51 pm)
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with his wife at the Holodomor Museum in Kiev ©APA/AFP
On the day of commemoration of the deliberately induced famine of 1932 and 1933 (“Holodomor”), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared that the classification of this Soviet crime as genocide was “extremely important”. “They wanted to humiliate us, kill us, exterminate us. They failed,” Zelenskyy said on Saturday, in a speech in which he recalled the famine catastrophe under Soviet leader Josef Stalin. The Holodomor was also celebrated in Austria.
Millions of people in Ukraine were victims of this crime, known as Holodomor (“murder by hunger”). Zelensky added: “Evil has not been stopped. It has not been atoned for. And now we are stopping it.” He thanked all states that have already recognized the Holodomor as genocide. “Justice is spreading throughout the world. The world must know it, the world must recognize it, the world must remember it,” he said.
Austria is not included. The Ukrainian ambassador to Austria, Wassyl Chymynez, recently called on members of the National Council to explicitly recognize the 1932/1933 Holodomor as a “genocide of the Ukrainian people.” In the evening, an ecumenical event in memory of the famine victims took place at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, to which the Ukrainian embassy in Vienna had invited.
“Today we commemorate the Holodomor, the man-made famine that killed millions of Ukrainians 90 years ago,” the Austrian Foreign Ministry said on the online short message service X (formerly Twitter). Austria also reiterates “that food should never be used as a weapon and pledges a further 3.8 million euros to the GrainFromUkraine initiative in order to contribute to global food security.”
Zelensky also denounced the fact that the Russian army fired a record number of 75 combat drones into Ukraine the night before Memorial Day. “Conscious terror. Right now. Russia’s leadership prides itself on being able to kill.” The head of state emphasized that current Russian perpetrators must be consistently held accountable. “Although there are crimes without a statute of limitations, justice must be done in a timely manner.”
In a statement on Holodomor Memorial Day, US President Joe Biden drew a connection between what happened then and the current Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. “Today, Ukraine’s agricultural infrastructure is once again being targeted – this time by (Russian President) Vladimir Putin as part of his quest for conquest and power,” said a statement distributed by the White House. Russia’s military attempted to destroy Ukraine’s economy and independence by intentionally damaging fields and destroying Ukraine’s grain warehouses and ports.
“This is not just an attack on Ukraine’s economic security, but a cynical attack on food security around the world,” Biden said. “On this anniversary, we remember all those who have endured so much suffering, past and present, and who continue to fight against tyranny.”