In Lisbon, the newly opened memorial plaque in honour of the Holodomor victims was vandalized

On October 23, in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, a memorial was unveiled in honour of the Holodomor victims in Ukraine in 1932-1933. The First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, the Ambassador Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Portugal, Maryna Mykhailenko, and the Mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas, participated in the ceremony.

Olena Zelenska thanked the City Hall of Lisbon and the whole of Portugal for the fact that they understand the importance of establishing justice, including historical justice, and the importance of punishing and condemning crimes, no matter how long ago they occurred. We will remind you that the Parliament of Portugal recognised the Holodomor of 1932-1933 as genocide of the Ukrainian people back in 2017.

On the second day after unveiling the memorial plaque, an act of vandalism was committed against it. Obviously, it was not without pro-Russian activists. The head of the Union of Ukrainians in Portugal, Pavlo Sadoha, wrote on his Facebook page: “Obviously, we do not yet know the author of the vandalism, but as it is written “peace” (PAZ), we can safely assume that Russian terrorists and their supporters are behind it in Portugal. This is a terrible, inhumane act of vandalism because we are talking about the memory of millions of victims of the genocide organised by the communist totalitarian regime of Moscow against Ukrainians.”

The Ukrainian diaspora in Portugal has already appealed to the police with a statement about the crime committed, and it plans to appeal to Portugal’s top government officials “with a request to take all measures to prevent the repetition of such acts of vandalism.”

Photo from Olena Zelenska and Pavlo Sadokha’s Facebook pages.