Following is the text of remarks by Sergiy Kyslytsya, permanent representative of Ukraine to the United Nations, delivered on November 21 during the service in remembrance of the Holodomor held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York.
Today I have the honor to deliver the joint statement on the occasion of the 87th anniversary of the Holodomor 1932-1933 on behalf of His Excellency Volodymyr Yelchenko, ambassador of Ukraine in the United States; Oleksii Holubov, consul general of Ukraine in New York, who is with us today; as well as Serhiy Koledov and Dmytro Kushneruk, consuls general of Ukraine in Chicago and San Francisco.
Dear American Friends:
In late November Ukrainians all over the world unite in mourning for millions of innocent victims of one of the largest crimes against humanity – the Holodomor-Genocide [of] 1932-1933 in Ukraine.
We appreciate the solidarity of many nations, who share our pain and join us in this solemn commemoration.
Having massacred by hunger millions of innocent people, the Bolshevik regime for many years strived to kill the very memory about them.
At that time, the hunger was an attempt to bring Ukrainians to their knees, deprive them of any hope to chart their own destiny, forget, even in dreams, about the possibility of ever reinstating its independence.
However, despite the decades of attempts to conceal the fact of the Holodomor, the world knows and remembers it today.
We would like to express special gratitude to the United States of America for the support of the Holodomor cause, all Ukrainian Americans for their hard work on recognition of Holodomor as genocide and keeping memory of this tragedy for all those years.
Spreading the truth is a tribute to victims, and a part of the work of countering not just old Soviet, but present-day Russian disinformation and propaganda.
Today the story of the atrocity is well known in the United States.
As a result, the U.S. Congress, along with almost half of American states, have recognized Holodomor as genocide.
We are confident that one day all U.N. member states will call the Holodomor by its real name.
Dear Friends:
Let us put lit candles on the windowsills of our houses and remember the innocent victims of this terrible tragedy.
May the flickering flame of millions of candles warm the souls of those who died from starvation in 1932-1933 in Ukraine.