Appeal against an act of vandalism on the monument to the Holodomor victims in Kryvyi Rih

15 March 2021

A monument to the Holodomor was damaged in Kryvyi Rih—unknown people threw an explosive package at the monument. The deputy of the Kryvyi Rih city council Oleh Podkopaev reported about it on the page on Facebook.

“Behind me is a monument to the victims of the Holodomor (Lermontov Street), and on the monument are obvious traces of an explosive device. /…/ That is, someone took an explosive package, set it on fire and threw it onto the monument,” the deputy wrote on his Facebook page.

The National Museum of the Holodomor Genocide condemns any manifestations of disrespect for national places of remembrance and mass graves, public statements that contradict the Law of Ukraine “On the Holodomor of 1932–1933 in Ukraine” and degrade human dignity.

The Holodomor Museum addresses the President of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine, the Main Directorate of the National Police in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration, the Oblast Council, the City Council and the Mayor of Kryvyi Rih and calls for an investigation into vandalism. victims of the Holodomor genocide.

We would like to emphasize that such manifestations of disrespect for the commemoration of the victims of the Holodomor genocide are systemic and are becoming more widespread.

  • In November 2020, on the eve of Remembrance Day, unknown people looted memorial plaques at the Orphanage, where children left without parents were taken en masse in 1932–33. Vandals with hammers worked at night. Commemorative plaques were smashed and filled with paint.
  • In August 2020, an act of vandalism was committed against the sculpture “Bitter Memory of Childhood”, located on the territory of the National Museum of the Holodomor Genocide.
  • In July 2019, the Holodomor monument was damaged in Pervomaisk (Mykolaiv region), and in April 2018, unknown people mutilated the monument to the Holodomor victims in the center of Zaporizhzhia.