Dear Dr.Durbak, Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,

Шановна громадо!

At the outset I would like to thank Dr.Durbak for her initiative to organize this commemorative event. I am grateful to my fellow colleagues-Representatives to the United Nations and to other respectful guests for being with us today. 

Дякую всім присутнім. 

These days all Ukrainians and friends of our country are commemorating the victims of Holodomor in Ukraine of 1932-1933. The Holodomor was one of the most heinous crimes in the history of mankind, the result of a deliberate play by Stalin to subjugate Ukrainians and destroy the Ukrainian nation. For over seventy years the Soviet regime concealed the truth and misled the World in the hope that its memory would be lost forever. Holodomor in Ukraine is not an abstract notion. It has million concrete names of its victims. This tragedy cannot be erased by someone’s will from the memory of our people, because there is no family in Central, Eastern or Northern Ukraine which would not have suffered losses. The truth about this tragedy cannot be hided from the international community because more and more countries recognize Holodomor as a crime against humanity, more and more of the secret archives of the KGB and Communist Party published, more testimonies of the survivors are discovered and more UN member states associate Holodomor with genocide. 

 We gathered today in the United Nations Headquarters to demonstrate our voice of solidarity with victims of Holodomor in order to prevent such crimes for the generations to come. Honoring these days its victims, revealing the truth about the use of starvation as a political weapon by Stalinist regime, today and every year we appeal the World not to forget and to learn that every Ukrainian life taken by this tragedy should be a stone to built new road of mankind history where there will be no place for genocides and food security will be assured. 

Ukraine remembers - the world acknowledges. Let the memories of Holodomor victims be eternal.  

Thank you.