On the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Genocide of the Crimean Tatar People, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered an address.
The text of the address was published on social media.
“Today is a day that reminds us why any cruel empire deserves to fall. Eighty-one years ago, the Soviet authorities began the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people. An entire nation was expelled from their homeland and thrown into a journey that became a death sentence for thousands and thousands of people, for many families. At least a third of the Crimean Tatar people were lost to disease, hunger, exhaustion and abuse. A tragedy that was made possible by a criminal totalitarian system and the impunity of the leaders in Moscow. A tragedy that should never have happened again. But there was another Russian occupation of Crimea in 2014, and now thousands of families are unfortunately divided again. We have to fight for freedom and our own home again,” the statement reads.
The Head of State stressed that Ukraine would honour the memory of all victims of the deportation and genocide of the Crimean Tatar people. “We remember how important it is that the people were able to return home. We are working to protect our independent state, all our people, all our land.”
“Crimea, like the rest of Ukraine, must be free. Empires always fall,” the President stressed.