Victor Yushchenko has attended a ceremony to unveil a monument honoring the Holodomor victims in the village of Serhiivka (Chernihiv oblast), according to the President`s press-office.
In his speech, the President said such events were necessary to preserve national memory.
“Such monuments should be erected in thousands of Ukrainian villages. This is our common obligation: we must remember what our grandparents and great grandparents went through,” he said, thanking the locals for their interest in those tragic events and urging all Ukrainians to renew sites where the Holodomor victims were buried.
The President reiterated that Joseph Stalin and his regime were to blame for the tragedy. He said the fact of genocide against the Ukrainian nation could not be questioned.
“I want the nation and its politicians to understand this,” he said. “Our voters are responsible that there are still politicians in Ukraine who deny the genocide.”
Mr. Yushchenko called on witnesses to those events to share their memories with Holodomor researchers.
The President observed one minute of silence and prayed to honor the dead. A snowball tree garden was then opened near the monument. Mr. Yushchenko and Serhiivka pupils put yellow-and-blue ribbons on the branches.
Chernihiv Governor Mykola Lavryk, ex-Minister of Culture Ihor Likhovy, who now heads the Secretariat Office to Preserve Cultural Heritage, Ukrainian Diaspora Relations Coordinator Ivan Dratch and Prosvita Association Head Pavlo Movchan attended the ceremony.
