Illinois Declares 2018 to Be the Year of Holodomor Victims

Photo from Ukrinform–UATV

Illinois in the United States declared 2018 to be the year of the memory of Holodomor victims, informed the Embassy of Ukraine in the U.S. on Facebook.

“Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner issued a proclamation declaring 2018 the year in memory of victims of the 1932-1933 Holodomor genocide in Ukraine artificially caused by Soviet authorities,” the embassy wrote.

Rauner wrote that “millions of Ukrainian residents, the majority of whom were ethnic Ukrainians, died of starvation in a peacetime catastrophe unprecedented in the history of Ukraine.”

“I, Bruce Rauner, Governor of the State of Illinois, do hereby commemorate the 85th anniversary of Ukrainian famine genocide and encourage all Illinoisans to memorialize the victims and survivors of Holodomor,” Rauner concluded.

In May, the American state of Missouri officially recognized Holodomor as genocide of the Ukrainian people. Ten other U.S. states have recognized Holodomor as genocide: Washington, Wisconsin, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Kansas and Pennsylvania.

Holodomor has been recognized as genocide by more than 20 countries and by the authorities of individual territories of a number of countries.

Earlier, Eugene Czolij, president of the Ukrainian World Congress, urged Cyprus to recognize Holodomor as genocide against the Ukrainian people.

https://www.facebook.com/ukr.embassy.usa/photos/a.437547496288488.96187.211311782245395/1789396227770268/?type=3&theater

Between 1932 and 1933, millions of Ukrainians died in a famine caused by the Soviet regime of Joseph Stalin. Many of those who perished were children.

The Russian government denies that the famine was directed against Ukrainians. It also denies that it was an act of genocide.