Ukraine marked Holodomor Remembrance Day as President Volodymyr Zelensky and First Lady Olena Zelenska honored the millions of Ukrainians who perished in the 1932–33 famine, widely recognized as a genocide.

The ceremony in Kyiv began with a prayer service at the Uspenskyi Cathedral in the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery. Zelensky, the First Lady, and senior government officials later laid ears of wheat — a symbol of the famine — at the “Bitter Memory of Childhood” monument at the national Holodomor memorial.

The Holodomor, caused by grain confiscations and brutal policies under Joseph Stalin, killed an estimated 3 to 7 million Ukrainians. More than 30 countries now recognize it as a genocide.

A tragedy once suppressed, the Holodomor now stands at the center of Ukrainian national memory, especially after the 2014 Maidan revolution and Russia’s ongoing aggression.