President Yushchenko at an exhibition devoted to the famine in Kyiv on 25 November (epa)
26 November 2005 - Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko planted trees in a city park in Kyiv today to commemorate victims of the forced Soviet-era famine that killed up to 10 million Ukrainians.
On 25 November, Yushchenko called on the international community to recognize as genocide the famine that Soviet dictator Josef Stalin provoked in the winter of 1932-33 when he imposed grain requisitioning as part of his campaign to force Ukrainian peasants to join collective farms. Much of the Ukrainian grain was sold to make money for the Soviet industrialization campaign as Ukrainians starved.
Later in the day, Yushchenko is expected to participate in a commemorative rally where relatives and survivors will light 33,000 candles - representing the number of people who were dying daily at the famine's height.
(AFP)
World War II: 60 Years On
World War II: 60 Years On
A microsite devoted to RFE/RL's coverage of the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in May 2005.
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