Ukraine’s objective of bringing the Holodomor to international attention is to pay tribute to the millions of innocent victims, to condemn the crimes of the Soviet Communist regime, to restore historical justice and to obtain international recognition of the Ukrainian genocide.
By making the case for the Holodomor to be acknowledged as genocide, Ukraine seeks to increase the international community’s awareness of the fact that engineered famines are still being used as a weapon and, through this awareness, to help prevent such deplorable acts elsewhere in the world.
The Parliament of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada, called for international recognition of the Holodomor as genocide in its three Resolutions adopted during 2002–03. On 28 November 2006, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine passed a Law declaring the Holodomor as genocide.
“The issue is clear to me. I need not refer to the UN definitions, for in my own village more than half of the inhabitants perished. I consider it genocide”.
Oleksandr Moroz,
Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) of Ukraine
“The Holodomor is a tragic moment in the history of our people, and causes pain in the hearts of all Ukrainians. Our losses were enormous – we lost at least seven million of our compatriots. This was not just a heavy blow to the nation’s gene pool. In essence, the existence of the Ukrainian nation was placed in doubt”.
Viktor Yanukovych,
Former Prime Minister of Ukraine
“The Holodomor was deliberately organized by Stalin’s regime, and must be condemned publicly by the Ukrainian society and the international community as one of the largest – in terms of the number of victims – genocides in the world”.
Leonid Kuchma,
President of Ukraine (1994–2004)
