The Ambassador of Ukraine to the USA Spoke about the Difficulties of Recognizing the Holodomor as Genocide

In an interview with Ukrinform, Valeriy Chaly, the Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States, spoke about victories and defeats during his mission in Washington.

In particular, the Ambassador stressed the importance of recognizing the Holodomor as genocide in the United States and spoke about the difficulties felt by the team when working on the task.

“First I met with the leaders of the Ukrainian World Congress and the heads of Ukrainian organizations from different countries. I found out why we still were not able to do it. I was told how this had happened in previous attempts and what had prevented it.

The recognition of the Holodomor as genocide was a real struggle.

The idea was, first and foremost, to explain the importance of this issue to our partners from Jewish organizations in the US and from other diasporas. You know that at one time there was a wary attitude towards recognizing the Holodomor as genocide and bringing this tragedy to the same level as the Holocaust of the Jews. I am sincerely grateful that Jewish organizations in the US supported our idea.

We understood that the most difficult stage of recognizing the Holodomor as genocide would be in Congress. I remember that when this issue came to the level of the House of Representatives, very serious opposition from Russia began. A spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry then declared that this was unacceptable, and active pressure from all sides appeared.

As we began to promote the idea of ​​recognizing the Holodomor of 1932–1933 in Ukraine as genocide, the actions of the pranksters intensified. After my meetings with state governors who accepted the proclamations, their accounts on Twitter, Facebook immediately were attacked by bots and the flow of criticism began. There were also calls from pranksters who represented the ambassador of Ukraine to the US and said that we met with you, please cancel your decision. We just were faster, and together with the Ukrainian authorities, together with Ukrainian organizations in the USA, we were able to achieve our goals,” Valeriy Chalyi, Ambassador of Ukraine to the USA said.