13:44 26.11.2016

State leaders urge Ukrainians to light candles to commemorate Holodomor victims

2 min read
State leaders urge Ukrainians to light candles to commemorate Holodomor victims

Ukrainian leaders have urged Ukrainians to light a candle at 16:00 on November 26 to commemorate the victims of the artificially-created famine Holodomor of 1932-1933.

"The memory of the hideous crime of the Holodomor organizers gives us power to protect our future. Ukraine remembers…" Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko wrote on his pages on social networks.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman stressed that the Ukrainian history has many tragic pages, but the Holodomor of 1932-1933 is one of the largest catastrophes in European history.

"For today, a number of world countries have recognized the Holodomor of 19232-1933 as the genocide of the Ukrainian people, which is a crime against humanity, which Ukrainians will never forget and which the international community has no right to forget. I urge all of you to commemorate the victims of famines in Ukraine and to light up a memorial candle at home," Groysman said in his address.

Verkhovna Rada Chairman Andriy Parubiy also urged Ukrainians in all countries to light the memory candles.

Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Oleksandr Turchynov also noted that Holodomor is one of the most heinous crimes in the history of humankind.

The Holodomor was an artificially created famine in Ukraine in 1932-1933 that killed an estimated 2.5-7.5 million Ukrainians. It was part of the wider disaster, the Soviet famine of 1932–33, which affected the major grain-producing areas of the country.

During the Holodomor millions of inhabitants of Ukraine, the majority of whom were ethnic Ukrainians, died of starvation. In 2006, the Holodomor was recognized by the Ukrainian authorities as the genocide of the Ukrainian people carried out by the Soviet Union.

Holodomor Remembrance Day is marked in Ukraine annually on the fourth Saturday of November.

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