Victor Yushchenko spoke in St. Michael’s Square in Kyiv to
mark Holodomor Remembrance Day, president's press office reported.
In his speech, the President said the Ukrainian nation demanded
that the Holodomor victims be honored as martyrs of one of the worst
catastrophes in the history of mankind.
“I do not just ask but demand that Ukrainian parliament
recognize the Holodomor as genocide. This is their obligation and an inevitable
requirement of history,” he said. “Those who deny the Holodomor today loathe
Ukraine deeply and resolutely. They hate us, our spirit and our future. They do
not deny our history but deny Ukraine.”
Yushchenko urged the Russian Federation, as well as other
countries oppressed by Joseph Stalin, to “stand near us and worthily demonstrate
human sympathy by honoring the Holodomor.”
“We were hostages and victims of past evil and must jointly
purge ourselves of it,” he said.
The President thanked countries that had already recognized the
Holodomor as genocide. He expressed hopes the United Nations would unanimously
do it before the 75-year anniversary of the tragedy.
