Russian occupiers of Mariupol dismantled the Monument to the Victims of Holodomor in late October, the Famine of 1932-33 created by dictator Joseph Stalin that claimed the lives of millions of Ukrainians.
The current Russian regime has asserted “desecration” every time it imagined a lack of respect in former Soviet satellite states to various WWII memorials or graves. Yet it has systematically trampled on the memory of Ukrainians who were starved to death in a crime recognized around the world as an act of genocide.
Petro Andriushchenko, Adviser to the Mayor of Mariupol in Donetsk Oblast, commented on social media that “the Russians are continuing to destroy everything that is linked with Ukraine, our culture, history, and heritage.”
In all parts of Ukraine that Russia has brutalized then illegally and temporarily occupied, inadequate efforts were made to restore the critical infrastructure or the homes that the Russians have destroyed.
Instead, the invaders have only focused subjugating the population and eradicating the Ukrainian language and culture from educational institutions. It also systematically changed all road signs into the Russian language.
After failing in its war effort, retreating from thousands of miles of Ukrainian territory, the Russian military fixated on destroying a memorial to the innocent victims of a crime against humanity. The destruction of the Mariupol landmark was also triumphantly displayed by Russian propaganda channels.
The tragedy of...
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