Following is the text of remarks as delivered by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) at the Holodomor commemoration in St. Patrick‘s Cathedral in New York on November 18. (Transcribed by Andrij Dobriansky.)
Your Eminencies, Your Excellencies, members of the diplomatic corps, leaders of this wonderful American Ukrainian community, and to all of you:
It is an honor and a privilege to be here with you.
Every year I have tried to join with you on this solemn day for many years. That is because I believe from the bottom of my heart that it is our sacred duty to honor the victims of the Ukraine Genocide who cannot speak for themselves and whose memory calls down to us for justice for decades
And I am so honored that two survivors – Nadia and Oleksandr [Severyn] – have joined us this afternoon. Congratulations and long life to you!
A fitting tribute and may God give you many more years as Americans and proud Ukrainian Americans.
Now, it was 84 years ago, that Stalin used the sharp scythe of hunger to brutally cut down millions – millions – of innocent Ukrainians. He tried to annihilate the Ukrainian people; he tried to annihilate the Ukrainian spirit.
But, praise God, he failed. Stalin is gone, Soviet Russia is gone, and the Ukrainian people live on! Long may they live!
Still, the memory of the millions who were lost matters, because a genocide that is not properly told can lead to another.
We must, painful though it is, stare into the heart of darkness, and answer the terrible questions: How could this genocide happen? Who was responsible? Who answered the call for help? Who ran from responsibility?
If we do not ask these questions with courage and honesty and thoroughness, we ignore the moral responsibility to the innocent victims to make sure the whole world knows the truth.
For too long, the Ukrainian Genocide was not properly recognized, or given the historical significance it deserved.
That is why we supported, and I worked so hard, for the construction of the Holodomor Memorial in Washington, D.C.
That is why we gather here every year. We cannot ever forget these things. Every time genocide occurs, the world says never again.
Time and time again, we promise that we’ve learned to listen, that we will stop these crimes from being repeated in other countries.
We should never fail to keep that promise. By being here today, they’ll keep that promise. We must never stop trying.
There are genocides going on around us to this day. Three years ago, when the Yazidis in Iraq faced the genocide threat at the hands of the evil ISIS, the United States and its allies countered the call and sent troops and supplies to protect them. Many lives were saved.
Today – a new crisis in Myanmar, where the Rohingya people have been violently forced out of their homes by a brutal crackdown.
Reports in the press have been disturbing, and the whole world must speak out to take action, to protect them before it’s too late.
Now, America cannot be the world’s policeman and have soldiers in every corner of the globe. But we must always be a moral compass. This grand land, that has lived in freedom for centuries, must always shape the conscience of the world when the lives of innocent millions hang in the balance.
Let me close with a thought about Russia.
In recent years, Ukrainians and Americans both have experienced the consequences of President Putin’s bullying firsthand. Russia’s meddling in the 2016 elections were a stunning breach of American sovereignty that had precedent in Putin’s brazen grab of land in the Crimea, and the Russian army’s ongoing support of “separatists” in eastern Ukraine.
Now, more than ever, it is essential – essential – my friends, that the United States and Ukraine stand together, shoulder to shoulder, in the face of Putin’s reckless foreign interventions.
Let us remind Mr. Putin that Ukraine and the United States have outlasted authoritarian thugs in the past, and we will continue to do so in the future.
Slava Ukrayini! And thank you for the honor of addressing you.