Yuschenko asks Pope Benedict XVI, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I to pray for famine victims

11:17

Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko has sent letters to Vatican and Istanbul asking Pope Benedict XVI and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I to pray for the innocent victims of the Famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine.

The president said that in November 2008, the Ukrainian people and international community would mark the 75th anniversary of the famine of 1930s in Ukraine – a national tragedy that killed millions of people, the presidential press service reported on Monday.

Yuschenko said that the Famine of 1932-1933 had significantly impacted the history of Ukraine in the 20th century.

"Thanks to the work of [historians], irrefutable proofs have been produced that this was an act of genocide. The communist regime planned to destroy the color of the [Ukrainian] nation and the roots of Ukrainian nationhood. All this was done to break our will for freedom and the revival of our own statehood. But all the efforts of the monsters have failed. A God-loving Ukrainian nation has stood against and beaten [these monsters] in the teeth of unprecedented losses," he said.

Yuschenko also wished the church leaders good health, prosperity and peace.

17.11.2008