PARSIPPANY, N.J. – Missouri and Kansas are the latest U.S. states that have issued proclamations recognizing the Holodomor as a genocide committed against the people of Ukraine.
On May 7, Jeff Colyer, M.D., governor of Kansas, proclaimed 2018 as “Ukrainian Genocide Remembrance Year” and urged “all citizens to highly value and protect human rights, and join in the commemoration of this tragic episode in the world’s history.”
Gov. Colyer’s proclamation noted that the “Holodomor was the man-made famine in Ukraine imposed by the community regime of Joseph Stalin in 1932-1933 in his attempt to snuff out the resistance of Ukrainians who opposed community rule and collectivization of privately owned farms and was a deliberate act of genocide on the Ukrainian nation.”
On April 3, Gov. Eric R. Greitens of Missouri issued a proclamation declaring this year “Ukrainian Genocide Remembrance Year.” He noted that “85 years ago, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and his totalitarian regime committed an act of genocide through the implementation of an engineered famine and by confiscating land, grain and animals from the Ukrainian people, resulting in deaths of up to 10 million innocent men, women and children.”
The document also asserted: “Under the global theme ‘Ukraine Remembers, the World Acknowledges,’ it is necessary that the Ukrainian Genocide, Holodomor, of 1932-1933, be officially recognized by the global community as a tragic and heinous crime against humanity in order to prevent similar tragedies from occurring in the future.”