Biden denounces Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s agriculture in Holodomor remembrance statement

U.S. President Joe Biden said in his Holodomor remembrance address on Nov. 25 that Russia seeks to destroy Ukraine’s economy and independence through attacks on the country’s agriculture.

“90 years ago, the inhumane policies of Joseph Stalin and the Soviet regime created death by hunger… Stalin and his regime systematically seized Ukraine’s grain and farms and transferred Ukrainian grain to other parts of the USSR as a tactic to repress Ukraine’s national identity,” Biden said.

The Holodomor Memorial Day, which falls on Nov. 25 this year, commemorates the man-made famine that took place between 1932-33 during Joseph Stalin’s reign over the Soviet Union and caused an estimated 3.5 to 5 million Ukrainian deaths.

Read also: Holodomor: Soviet Union’s man-made famine in Ukraine

“Today, Ukraine’s agricultural infrastructure is once more being deliberately targeted—this time by Vladimir Putin as part of his drive for conquest and power,” the U.S. president noted.

Biden stressed that Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s agriculture are a “cynical assault on food security everywhere” carried out “for Russia’s profit.”

Today’s Holodomor Memorial Day coincides with the Second International Summit on Food Security held in Kyiv, aimed at supporting “Ukraine’s role as a guarantor of food security, consolidating efforts to ensure global food security and developing alternative” routes for agricultural exports.

Ukraine is one of the world’s leading grain producers and exporters, and Russia’s attacks on its ports and threats to the Black Sea shipping put strain on food security across the world.

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