by Dan Peleschuk
KIEV (Reuters) – Ukraine accused Russia on Saturday of resorting to the same “genocidal” tactics as Joseph Stalin as the country commemorates the famine that claimed millions of lives in the winter of 1932-33 following requisitions imposed by the Soviet leader .
The “Holodomor” Remembrance Day of the 1930s famine in Ukraine comes this year as the country grapples with winter temperatures and widespread blackouts due to Russian bombing of its energy infrastructure as part of what Moscow describes as a ” special military operation”, launched in February.
“Once they tried to destroy us with hunger, now with darkness and cold,” Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky wrote in Telegram messages. “We cannot be broken.”
In November 1932, Joseph Stalin ordered the seizure of all grain and livestock from newly collectivized farms in Ukraine, including seeds for the next harvest. In the following months, millions of Ukrainians died of starvation.
“Russians will pay for all the victims of the Holodomor and answer for today’s crimes,” Andriy Yermak, head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, wrote in Telegram.
Millions of Ukrainians are left without electricity after intense Russian bombing this week, Volodimir Zelensky said on Friday evening.
Russia denies targeting civilians and said on Thursday that Ukraine could “end the suffering” of its people by agreeing to its demands.
MACRON ACCUSES RUSSIA OF “INSTRUMENTALIZING HUNGER”
Ukraine’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Saturday that Moscow is resurrecting the tactics of the 1930s.
“On the 90th anniversary of the 1932-1933 Holodomor in Ukraine, Russia’s war of genocidal aggression pursues the same goal as the 1932-1933 genocide: the elimination of the Ukrainian nation and its state,” he said.
“The political and ideological narrative of the Stalin era, especially the presentation of a so-called ‘hostile West’ and the denial of Ukraine’s existence as an independent state, is being actively reproduced today,” he added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin partly justified the military offensive launched on February 24 in Ukraine with what he considers a desire of the West to integrate this country into its fold, which he says would pose a threat to Russia.
Present this Saturday in Kiev in the company of his Lithuanian counterpart Ingrida Simonyte, the Polish prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, also made a historical connection between the current situation and that of the Soviet Union of the 1930s, to which Ukraine belonged. .
“Today the world faces another man-made famine,” he said. “We are working together to ensure full supply from Ukraine to countries in Africa and Asia.”
Despite the ongoing conflict, Ukraine and Russia reached an agreement in July under the aegis of the United Nations and Turkey to allow exports of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea. This deal has just been renewed for four months.
FOOD SAFETY
In the presence of Mateusz Morawiecki, Ingrida Simonyte, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo and Hungarian President Katalin Novak, Volodimir Zelenskiy organized an international summit dedicated to world food security and Ukrainian agricultural exports this Saturday in Kiev.
As part of this summit, Volodimir Zelensky announced that he had raised $150 million from over 20 countries and the European Union to export grain to countries such as Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen.
“We plan to send at least 60 ships from Ukrainian ports to countries most threatened by famine and drought,” the Ukrainian president said.
In a video message broadcast during this summit, Emmanuel Macron promised 6 million euros in additional aid for exports of Ukrainian cereals, vital for the supply of many African and Asian countries.
The French president also recalled the “great tragedy” of the famine of the 1930s.
“From yesterday to today, the Ukrainian nation shows its determination and arouses our admiration,” said the French president. “Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine… threatens the world with a food crisis.”
“Russia continues to use hunger as a means of pressure and food as a weapon of war,” he accused.
(Report by Dan Peleschuk, with Alan Charlish in Warsaw, French version by Bertrand Boucey and Kate Entringer)
