On September 29-30, Ukraine, along with the rest of the world, honors the memory of tens of thousands of Jews murdered by the Nazis 83 years ago in the Kyiv Babyn Yar tract.
Launched by the Nazi regime in the fall of 1941, the horrific death conveyor belt did not stop until 1943, when the Ukrainian capital was liberated, claiming the lives of over one hundred thousand Jews, Roma, Ukrainians, and people of other nationalities.
The tragedy of Babyn Yar became a common tragedy for the Ukrainian and Jewish peoples, a mournful symbol of the Holocaust on the territory of Nazi-occupied Ukraine.
The horrific Nazi crimes at Babyn Yar were hushed up for decades by the Soviet authorities, who tried to erase them from popular memory and shift the focus from the genocide against the Jewish people, the Holocaust. The Soviet regime banned proper commemoration and truthful literature about Babyn Yar. However, the truth about this crime was preserved and restored, and today, honoring the cherished memory of the innocent victims of Babyn Yar and the millions of victims of the Holocaust, we, along with the entire international community, repeat “Never Again!”, calling on the world to do everything possible to prevent such catastrophes from happening again.
Today, humanity is once again convinced that disregard for basic human rights, systematic violations of universally recognized principles and norms of international humanitarian law, crimes against humanity and humanity are the sinister basis that has united and continues to unite authoritarian and totalitarian regimes. As we say the sacred words “Never Again” on this day, we call on the entire international community to back them up with concrete actions in support of Ukraine, which is confronting Russian aggression and atrocities on a scale Europe has not seen since World War II. Only by working together can we put an end to them and restore justice and a comprehensive, just and lasting peace based on the Peace Formula and the UN Charter.
