Fellow Ukrainians!

Today all over Ukraine, in every corner of it, and in dozens of countries, we bow our heads in the memory of millions of Holodomor victims of 32-33 years. In the memory of young children, whose angelic lives were interrupted and deprived of the future. In the memory of mothers who did everything possible to protect their families, their children, and failed to do so.

In the memory of elder people, who cultivated the Ukrainian wisdom, spirit, memory and morality. In the memory of inspired grain growers who were able to feed several ukraines and were robbed.

In the memory of the fusilladed Renaissance: Ukrainian artists, writers, poets, scientists, most of which were destroyed by famine of 32-33 years.

Let’s commemorate everyone: our grandfathers and great-grandfathers, known members of our families, because Ukraine has almost no family that was not affected by the famine, and our unknown innocent brothers and sisters died on the Ukrainian land.

We still hear their voices, moans and prayers that sound from the past.

We promise: We will not forget! We will not betray! We will not forgive!

Polish expert on criminal law Raphael Lemkin has been the first to formulate and substantiate the term "genocide" - four years earlier than the United Nations. Back in 1953 he showed that Holodomor in Ukraine was a classic example of genocide.

Parliaments of dozen countries also ranked Holodomor as genocide. In 2006, Verkhovna Rada finally acknowledged the obvious. My voice was also among the MPs who voted for this historic law. I'm proud of it. I had the privilege to vote for this historic law.

But most importantly, Holodomor has finally imprinted in our historical memory as genocide. According to the latest sociological research, three-quarters of Ukrainians firmly believe that Holodomor was genocide against the Ukrainian people. And the number of those who do not recognize the genocide rapidly decreases. For the facts are stubborn things.

Let's think: What was the purpose of genocide? The answer is obvious. The same Lemkin said: "Ukrainian, despite the dependence, on Moscow refused collectivization taking rather deportation or death ... Peasants were the keepers of traditions and the national spirit of Ukraine. And the weapon that was used against them, is perhaps the most terrible - famine".

James Mace, another prominent researcher of Holodomor, said: “Stalin sought to destroy the Ukrainian peasantry, Ukrainian intelligentsia, Ukrainian language, Ukrainian spirit, Ukrainian culture and Ukrainian history".

Fellow Ukrainians!

Today, already having the experience of the Patriotic War of 2014 with the enemy who invaded our land, we have another look at the events of 32-33 years. It was also real and undeclared war against Ukraine.

The war of 32-33 years was conducted in all imperial colonial rules of operation. Communist party special units and internal troops were used against unarmed peasants. The Ukrainian SSR was blocked by the special troops and the population of the starving regions was ruthlessly exterminated by famine.

Propaganda of Bolshevism has broken all records of lies and hate justifying the regime's crimes against the peasantry. Take one decision of Lugansk CP(b)U on the "inadmissibility of using bread in collective canteens".

It looks like the spiritual descendants of Stalin, Kaganovich and Postyshev didn’t dissolve in the darkness of history. They rule on temporarily occupied territories of so-called "LPR" and "DPR". They repeat the criminal experiment of Holodomor era depriving civilians of food.

Other terrible analogies appear. Leaders of the Soviet Union rejected any help for the starving people in Ukraine. When Galicians sent rafts with food on Zbruch and Bug to their starving brothers, Soviet border guards shot people who tried to get that life-saving food.

Today, when food riots have started in the occupied territories of the Donbas, gunmen are shooting the vehicles with the Ukrainian humanitarian aid.

Fellow Ukrainians!

Within two years of the Bolshevism genocide Ukraine has lost from 4 to 10 million innocently murdered citizens.

Just think about it! The number of victims of Stalin's war against Ukrainians exceeded the total number of victims of the World War I in all the countries that took part in it!

"A quarter of all rural population, men, women and children died or were already dying. The rest of the men were so exhausted that they had no strength to bury the bodies of their relatives and neighbors," as wrote by Robert Conquest. This is - one of the most famous explorers of Holodomor, the author of the famous book "The Harvest of Sorrow."

The main factor of such catastrophic losses of our people is the lack of the national state and national armed forces that are able to protect their own people.

Ukraine was the largest European country, which has not gained independence between the two world wars or lost it. Holodomor as genocide was built in the genetic code of the nation, became part of our historical consciousness.

Today everywhere - in villages and towns - bells of mourning are sounding for the victims of Holodomor. Candles are being lit. I'm sure each of us, Ukrainians, around the world today has to light a candle and put it on the window in memory of the victims of Holodomor.

This eternal fire will support our will to win, which is sure to happen.

The memory of national tragedies and dark times unites us, makes us stronger and wiser. Thanks to the strength and wisdom, month ago, Ukrainian people passed the fair sentence to the fragment of the Russian Communist Party of the Soviet Union. For the first time in almost a hundred years, there will be no communists in the Ukrainian Parliament. It was the fifth column, which fully shares responsibility for the genocide of the Ukrainian people.

By the way, few have remembered that the first Congress of the Communist Party of Ukraine was held not in Ukraine. Now the party that has not repented of crimes against the people was send to the dustbin of history.

Holodomor tragedy would have never happened in Ukraine if it had been an independent and democratic state. Such disasters like genocide are a feature of dictatorship and totalitarianism. It will never happen again in Ukraine, which has chosen the European path.

Fellow Ukrainians!

Holodomor has been preceded by thousands of rebellions against collective slavery in which hundreds of thousands and even millions of Ukrainians have taken part. Why such a huge army did not overcome Bolshevism? Lack of coordination! Distrust! Lack of unity!

Today, the enemy again tries to divide us, make us quarrel, spread discord and hatred among us. Today, we need unity more than ever.

I believe that we can learn the lessons of the past. They shouldn’t hope to conquer Ukraine again – we’ve become strong, wise and we will fight back.

We will never give up!

We will never finish struggling!

Glory to Ukraine!

Fellow Ukrainians!

In the memory of those who died from genocide-Holodomor, I proclaim the nationwide moment of silence.