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The United States joins in solidarity with Ukrainians in remembrance of the victims of the Holodomor

14.11.2016, 19:43
The Press Secretary of the White House issued a special statement regarding the Holodomor commemoration.

The Press Secretary of the White House issued a special statement regarding the Holodomor commemoration.

"This month, the United States joins in solidarity with Ukrainian people around the world in remembrance of the victims of the Holodomor, one of the most horrific man-made tragedies in modern history.  Eighty-three years ago, more than three million people in Ukraine died as the result of the merciless policies of Joseph Stalin.  Through the deliberate seizure of Ukrainian land and crops, the Soviet Union caused widespread starvation.  Under siege and without access to food, Ukraine – once Europe’s breadbasket –  turned into a land of immeasurable human suffering.

As Ukrainians have proven to the world time and again, the human spirit is indomitable.  Even during the darkest times, the Ukrainian people have continued with dignity the struggle for peace, freedom, and democracy.  Today, faced with new threats to these values, Americans stand together with Ukrainians as they bravely defend their territory and democracy.  The Ukrainian-American community and friends of the Ukrainian people have worked hard to ensure that the memory of those who suffered during the Holodomor live on as we collectively seek to build a better, freer, and more just world"

Reference

The term Holodomor refers specifically to the brutal artificial famine imposed by Stalin's regime on Soviet Ukraine and primarily ethnically Ukrainian areas in the Northern Caucasus in 1932-33.

In its broadest sense, it is also used to describe the Ukrainian genocide that began in 1929 with the massive waves of deadly deportations of Ukraine's most successful farmers (kurkuls, or kulaks, in Russian) as well as the deportations and executions of Ukraine's religious, intellectual and cultural leaders, culminating in the devastating forced famine that killed millions more innocent individuals. The genocide in fact continued for several more years with the further destruction of Ukraine's political leadership, the resettlement of Ukraine's depopulated areas with other ethnic groups, the prosecution of those who dared to speak of the famine publicly, and the consistent blatant denial of famine by the Soviet regime.