Ruslan Stefanchuk: Impunity for crimes generates new crimes – russia's succession extends to the crimes of the soviet union
25 November 2023, 16:50
"90 years separate us from the deliberate and planned mass murder of Ukrainians by the stalinist regime, but not a single moment separates us from the pain of our compatriots who suffered a brutal death from artificial famine and repression caused by the criminal and ruthless communist machine," said the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in his address at the rostrum of the Parliament of Ukraine on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the Holodomor-genocide of 1932-1933.
Ruslan Stefanchuk noted that in fact, in the 20th century, Ukraine experienced three bolshevik famines: 1921-1923, 1932-1933, and 1946-1947: "But by far the worst was the famine, whose cold breath Ukraine still feels 90 years later."
"Millions of Ukrainians became victims of the crime against Ukraine and the Ukrainian people, which was one of a number of grave crimes committed by imperial russia, its successor, the soviet union, and putin's modern dictatorial russia," he said, stressing that the tragedy also lies in the still unknown exact number of Ukrainian losses: four, seven or ten million.
Ruslan Stefanchuk emphasised that all three famines were a deliberate and well-planned campaign "to drive into the ground and oblivion any attempts or even intentions of the Ukrainian people to will, freedom, and independent life".
In addition, he noted that today we can clearly say that the impunity of the criminal state and the perpetrators of its criminal will for the crimes of the Holodomor and repression determined the further course of events that were tragic for Ukraine and dangerous for Europe and the world: "A monster has grown up, which even today brutally and without pity embodies the bloody policy of stalin-putin."
"While stalin starved Ukrainians, tortured them in kholmohory, arkhanhelsk, solovky, sandarmokh, and russified them, putin infiltrated russia into almost all spheres of life in independent Ukraine, sought to block our progress towards the European Union and NATO, and tried to brutally suppress the Maidan of Dignity, annexed Crimea in 2014 and occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, carried out a full-scale invasion in February 2022, occupying even more Ukrainian territories, killing us every day, abducting children, destroying critical infrastructure, blocking sea corridors for the export of Ukrainian grain," the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine stressed.
At the same time, Ruslan Stefanchuk stressed that Ukraine has consistently insisted not only on the importance of a proper legal, public, moral, and international assessment of the events of 90 years ago, but also on the deep awareness that impunity for crimes generates new crimes, and that russia's succession also extends to the crimes of the soviet union, "which it has never condemned and for which it has never apologised to anyone."
In conclusion, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine expressed gratitude to those nations whose parliaments and governments recognised the Holodomor of 1932-1933 as genocide of the Ukrainian people.
He stressed that it is important that the number of partners who recognised the Holodomor as genocide in 2022-2023 more than doubled compared to the period from 1991 to 2021 – in 2022-2023 alone, the Holodomor was recognised as genocide against Ukrainian people by 17 national parliaments, as well as by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the European Parliament.
