Wed 23 November 2022:
Pope Francis says Ukrainians are suffering today from the “martyrdom of aggression” and compared Russia’s war in Ukraine to the “terrible genocide” of Soviet leader Josef Stalin’s famine in the country.
In his weekly general address, Francis spoke to thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square and mentioned the “Holodomor”, or death by starvation, in which millions of Ukrainians died.
“This Saturday marks the anniversary of the terrible genocide of the Holodomor, the extermination by famine of 1932-33 that was artificially caused by Stalin,” he said.
“Let us pray for the victims of this genocide and let us pray for so many Ukrainians – children, women, elderly – who are today suffering the martyrdom of aggression,” he said.
The Holodomor resulted from Stalin’s efforts to collectivise agriculture and root out Ukraine’s fledgling nationalist movement.
Since Russia invaded its neighbour in February, Pope Francis has mentioned Ukraine in nearly all his public appearances.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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