Kiev, 25 November 2023 (dpa/MIA) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called it "extremely important" to remember the great famine of 1932-33 that killed millions of Ukrainians, known as the Holodomor, as a "genocide" perpetrated by the Russian-dominated Soviet Union.

"They tried to exterminate us, to subjugate us, to torture us. They failed. They wanted to conceal the truth from us and hush up the terrible crimes forever. They failed," Zelensky said in a speech on Saturday, in which he recalled the famine under Soviet leader Josef Stalin.

"And today, with utmost sorrow and respect, we honor the memory of millions of our people," he said.

The catastrophe is known in Ukraine as the Holodomor, meaning "murder by starvation." Saturday was Holodomor Remembrance Day.

Zelensky drew a connection between the mass famine and Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine, which includes attacks on infrastructure and grain exports.

"This is a process where the line of totalitarian Soviet policy and the line of modern Russian policy form the equal sign together. Evil was not stopped. Was not atoned for. And now we are stopping it," Zelensky said.

Photo: Wikipedia