“Before they wanted to destroy us through hunger, now they do it with darkness and cold,” says Volodimir Zelensky
Ukraine draw parallels this Saturday between the Russian invasion and the famine known as Holodomor, caused by the Soviet authorities between 1932 and 1933, which killed millions of Ukrainians and which the country considers a genocide.
Candles became a common interior item in Ukraine due to the blackouts caused by russian attacks. However, this Saturday was another reason why thousands of them were lit in the windows of many homes and in the squares of Ukrainian cities.
“The least we can do is remind everyone who died in the famine and to those who now suffer hunger because of the war in the areas devastated by Russia,” Vasylyna told Efe while her son Markiyan lights a candle after a brief religious service in the freedom square in Lviv (west).
On the occasion of the day commemorating the victims of the famine, Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky compared the Holodomor to the current situation in Ukrainewith thousands of homes without electricity and without heating.
“Before they wanted to destroy us through hunger, now they do it with the dark and the cold“, declared the head of state, while remarking that despite the terrible experiences they have lived through, Ukrainians have preserved their love of freedom and will prevail this time.
Zelensky also announced the launch of the “Grain from Ukraine” initiative, which aims to send up to 60 shiploads of grain to some of the world’s poorest countriesin a coordinated plan with the UN World Food Program.
The goal is to prevent the suffering of millions of people on the brink of starvation after the blockade of Ukrainian ports, Zelensky stressed during the opening ceremony, and thereby preventing Russia from using famine again as a weapon as it did in the Ukraine ninety years ago.
Joseph Stalin’s regime caused the Holodomor – “hunger massacre” in Ukrainian – by trying to suppress the resistance of millions of Ukrainian peasants, traditionally organized on small private farmswho resisted forced collectivization and large-scale industrialization that needed cheap labor.
Beginning in 1932 and with no natural cause for the famine, farmers in central, southern, and eastern Ukraine they were deprived not only of the cereal (intended largely for export) but all the food they had.
As a result, according to the Ukrainian Institute of Demography and Social Research, about four million Ukrainians diedwhile many others moved to the cities in search of food and work.
The destruction of the rural area was followed by the massive massacre of the Ukrainian intellectuals in the 1930swhich paved the way for Soviet control over Ukraine and the subsequent Russification of the country.
Although some foreign newspapers then published information over the mountains of bodies in the streets of Ukrainian towns and cities and about cases of cannibalism, the Holodomor went largely unnoticed internationally.
In Ukraine itself, the taboo remained in Soviet times and the issue only came to the fore during the presidency of Viktor Yushenko, who in 2006 instituted the day of remembrance to the memory of the deceased and promoted its recognition as genocide.
In 2010, a Ukrainian court found Stalin and several other senior Soviet officials responsible for organizing the famine.
Following the start of the Russian invasion, which has also been described as genocide by several European parliaments, the use of parallels has been inevitable and kyiv has filed a case before the International Criminal Court accusing Moscow of committing this crime with its aggression.
As regards the Holodomor, the parliaments of Ireland, Moldova and Romania have recently recognized as genocide and the German Bundestag is expected to do the same next week.
Russia does not consider famine as genocide and in October it dismantled the memorial to the victims in the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
According to the criteria of
Know more
