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Ukraine accused the Kremlin of reviving the “genocidal” tactics of Josef Stalin, as kyiv commemorated the Soviet-era famine that killed millions of Ukrainians in the winter of 1932-33.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenskyy and several European leaders marked the 90th anniversary of the Holodomor, or Great Famine, which killed more than 3 million people over two years, when the Soviet government of dictator Josef Stalin confiscated food and grain supplies and deported many Ukrainians.
In November 1932, Soviet leader Josef Stalin sent police to confiscate all grain and livestock from the newly collectivized Ukrainian farms, including the seeds needed to plant the next crop.
“Before they wanted to destroy us with hunger, now with darkness and cold,” Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram. “They can’t break us,” he added. Millions of Ukrainian peasants starved to death in what Yale University historian Timothy Snyder calls “clearly premeditated mass murder.”
“The Russians will pay for all the victims of the Holodomor and will answer for today’s crimes,” the head of the presidential administration, Andriy Yermak, wrote on Telegram. The Holodomor, which translates to “starvation,” has come to life in Ukrainian collective memory since the Maidan revolution in 2014 ousted a Russian-backed president.
“Winter is already hard, and if everything stays the same, then it will be very much like what we read about in the history books,” said Artem Antonenko, a 23-year-old marketing specialist who lives in central kyiv.
In recent weeks, Russia has targeted critical infrastructure across Ukraine with waves of aerial bombardments that have led to widespread power outages and civilian deaths.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry accused Moscow of reviving the tactics of the 1930s. “On the 90th anniversary of the 1932-1933 Holodomor in Ukraine, Russia’s genocidal war of aggression pursues the same goal as during the 1932 genocide -1933: the elimination of the Ukrainian nation and its statehood”, they communicated.
For its part, Moscow denies the existence of a deliberate genocidal policy and says Russians and other ethnic groups also suffered from the famine.
Pope Francis this week compared Russia’s war in Ukraine to what he called the “terrible genocide” of Stalin’s time, saying Ukrainians were now suffering the “martyrdom of aggression.”
The EU will pay for the export of 40,000 tons of Ukrainian grain
The Polish Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, joined the comparisons this Saturday by analyzing Russia’s war methods with those of Nazi Germany, during the “International Summit on Food Security” held in kyiv.
The meeting, organized by Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskyy and attended by several European Union leaders, focused on Ukraine’s food security and agricultural exports.
During his speech, Morawiecki compared Russia’s war methods with those of Nazi Germany. “Like Germany, Nazi Germany declared total war in 1942/43, when they saw they were losing, today Russia is doing the same. They see they are losing and so they seek destruction in the face of defeat,” Morawiecki said.
“We will never surrender to this brutal and barbaric regime,” he added.
The European Union will pay for the transport in two ships of 40,000 tons of Ukrainian cereal as part of an initiative to export grain to vulnerable countries, as announced by the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
“We will pay for the transportation of 40,000 tons of grain, which is what is left of the cereal that you have made available, whatever the cost,” von der Leyen confirmed during a speech to launch the “Grain from Ukraine” campaign.
The project seeks to provide free cereal to at least five million people in countries such as Sudan, Yemen, Kenya or Nigeria until the end of spring 2023.
The cereals will transit through the so-called Solidarity Corridors promoted by the EU, which since May have allowed the export of 17 million tons of Ukrainian cereal and food products by land.
“Solidarity Corridors have become a lifeline for the Ukrainian economy, providing more than 19 billion euros of much-needed income to Ukrainian farmers and businesses,” von der Leyen commented.
This program is added to the agreement promoted by Turkey and the United Nations, called the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which allows food to be taken out of the country by boat, bringing the products exported to the rest of the world from Ukraine to 28 million tons.
With EFE and Reuters
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