Edmonton's Ukrainian community marks anniversary of Holodomor famine

Edmonton’s Ukrainian community gathered over the weekend to mark the 90th anniversary of the Holodomor.

Saturday, a ceremony was held at City Hall, and a demonstration was held Sunday at Sir Winston Churchill Square.

"We're commemorating all the victims of the Holodomor, which was a man-made famine back in 1932-1933 by Soviet Russia," said Diana Kotsyuba of the Ukrainian National Youth Federation.

Kotsyuba said the famine is estimated to have killed between 7 and 10 million people in Ukraine. It was not officially recognized as an act of genocide by Canada until 2008.

Sunday, demonstrators set up several dining tables in the square.

"We have plates and spoons on them … but no people. There's nobody to sit and because everyone died, and there's no food on the plates because there was no food at the time."

Kotsyuba said there are many parallels between the Holodomor and the actions of Russia since the invasion began in February 2022.

"Each chair has a fact about the Holodomor or a fact about what makes today's full-scale war a genocide," she said.

According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Edmonton is home to the world's first memorial dedicated to the victims of the Holodomor.

In addition to remembering past victims, Kotsyuba said the weekend was a time to remind people that the invasion of Ukraine is ongoing.

"We just want to continue to speak about [this so] nobody forgets about this horrific tragedy," she added. "The same thing on another scale is going on, again, today, currently in Ukraine, which is the full-scale war."