https://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/zvernennya-prezidenta-ukrayini-z-nagodi-dnya-pamyati-zhertv-87249#:~:text=With%20coldness%20in%20our%20hearts,The%20Holodomor%20Remembrance%20Day.
Address of the President of #Ukraine on the occasion of the Day of #Remembrance of the Victims of the #Holodomors
25 November 2023 -
..."Every year at the end of November, a cold shiver runs down our spine. Regardless of the weather conditions and our location. With coldness in our hearts we are all united by a tragic date - the fourth Saturday of November. The Holodomor Remembrance Day. When we feel great pain and anger at the same time, as it is impossible to forget, understand, and especially forgive the horrific crimes of genocide that the Ukrainian people experienced in the XX century.
Men, women, children. Millions of innocent and murdered. Uncounted and countless. Uncounted at the time. When anything but the truth was written in the "cause of death" column. They callously "wrote off" thousands of people, did not consider it necessary to count, did not consider people as such. Countless in total. How many of them, starved to death, simply fell in the field, on the road, in their own yard? How many were not found? How many were not searched for? When the rulers had one need: for everyone to keep silent, and the relatives had neither the ability nor the energy to search for and prove the truth, and then there was no one left to search. How many are there?
No one knows the exact answer to this question. Just like the answers to other questions. How can one want to kill an entire people? To wipe out an entire nation? How can one take away the very last from people? The last food, the last means of subsistence, the last hope for life and the last chance for salvation? Normal people cannot imagine or understand this. But there is something we know for sure. They tried to exterminate us, to subjugate us, to torture us. They failed. They wanted to conceal the truth from us and hush up the terrible crimes forever. They failed. They wanted to confuse us, to mislead us, to make us not believe, to doubt, to forget, and therefore to forgive. They failed. And today, with utmost sorrow and respect, we honor the memory of millions of our people.
Today, as always, at 4 p.m. sharp, we will light the Candles of Remembrance. Many will be with their families, their children and grandchildren. Some of the young Ukrainians will see this candle for the first time. They will ask about it. And we will tell them the story. This candle will tell them a story that they should know, remember, and pass on to their children and grandchildren, who will tell it to their children and grandchildren. And as long as we keep lighting this fire, the memory of millions of our ancestors will not fade. "...
