Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his wife, Olena, pay their respects to the victims of the Holodomor famine at a memorial in central Kyiv on November 26.
KYIV — President Volodymyr Zelenskiy declared that Ukraine “cannot be broken” as he cited his country’s fight against the Russian invasion and marked the anniversary of the famine regarded by Ukrainians to be a deliberate act perpetrated by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
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“Ukrainians went through very terrible things…Once they wanted to destroy us with hunger — now, with darkness and cold,” Zelenskiy said on November 26 in a video message.
“We cannot be broken,” he declared. The prime ministers of EU and NATO members Belgium, Lithuania, and Poland were in Kyiv to mark the day and to attend a summit hosted by Zelenskiy to press the “Grain From Ukraine” initiative designed to get crucial supplies to world markets. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron were among those speaking through video addresses. Zelenskiy’s remarks came amid widespread cuts in power and water supplies in his country after weeks of Russian strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure and as temperatures plunge with the beginning of winter.
Zelenskiy and other leaders commemorated the victims of the Holodomor famine, which took place in 1932-33 as Stalin’s police forced peasants in Ukraine to join collective farms by requisitioning their grain and other foodstuffs.
Historians say the failure to properly harvest crops in Ukraine in 1932 under Soviet mismanagement was the main cause of the famine.
It is estimated that up to 9 million people died as a result of executions, deportation, and starvation during the Stalin-era campaign.
Many Ukrainians consider the famine an act of genocide aimed at wiping out Ukrainian farmers.
Along with Ukraine, at least 16 other countries have officially recognized the Holodomor as “genocide.”
In October 2018, the U.S. Senate adopted a nonbinding resolution recognizing that Stalin and those around him committed genocide against the Ukrainians in 1932-33. German lawmakers are preparing to recognize the Holodomor as genocide, according to a draft text seen by the AFP news agency of a joint resolution from Germany’s ruling coalition and opposition.
Moscow has long denied any systematic effort to target Ukrainians, arguing that a poor harvest at the time wiped out many in other parts of the Soviet Union.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that he “honored the memory of the Holodomor victims” at a memorial in the Ukrainian capital.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, on his first visit to Kyiv since the Russian invasion, said on Twitter that “after the heavy bombing of recent days, we stand with the people of Ukraine. More than ever before.”
“With the cold winter months ahead, Belgium is releasing new humanitarian and military aid,” he added. Zelenskiy told the grain summit that Kyiv is one of the guarantors of world food security and will fulfill its duties despite the Russian invasion, citing the new “Grain From Ukraine” initiative. He pressed world leaders to support the initiative aimed at feeding about 5 million people in poor countries, particularly Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, Congo, Kenya, and Nigeria. Speaking through video statements to the summit, Scholz and Macron unveiled new financial packages designed to aid Ukrainian grain exports, which have been hit hard by the war, causing food shortages in many of the world’s poorer nations. “The most vulnerable countries must not pay the price of a war they did not want,” Macron said. Zelenskiy said the Black Sea Grain Initiative — brokered by Turkey and the UN and agreed to by Russia and Ukraine — is not operating at full capacity, blaming what he called Moscow’s efforts to delay the movement of ships, leaving many vessels trapped at Ukrainian ports. The deal took effect in August, aimed at unblocking grain shipments to countries in Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Asia. Ukraine and Russia are key global suppliers of wheat, barley, sunflower oil, and other food to those countries, and Russia was the world’s top exporter of fertilizer before it launched its ongoing invasion of Ukraine in February.
Many in the West have accused Russia of weaponizing the shipment of crucial food-related supplies to world markets. Moscow denies the accusations.
Meanwhile, throughout Ukraine, millions of people are still without heat or electricity after the recent devastating Russian air strikes on infrastructure sites. Authorities on November 26 were gradually restoring power in many cities — helped by the reconnection to the grid of the nation’s four nuclear plants.
Fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces was reported in the east and south of the country, as Kyiv’s troops continue their counteroffensive, which has recaptured thousands of kilometers of territory seized by Russia early in the war.
In the recently liberated southern city of Kherson and its environs, authorities said at least 32 people have been killed by Russian shelling since pro-Kremlin forces withdrew two weeks ago and moved to the eastern bank of the Dnieper River. “Daily Russian shelling is destroying the city and killing peaceful local residents. In all, Russia has killed 32 civilians in the Kherson region since the de-occupation,” Ihor Klymenko, chief of the National Police of Ukraine, said on Facebook.
“Many people are evacuating to seek refuge in calmer regions of the country. But many residents remain in their homes, and we need to provide them with the maximum possible security,” he added.
