Cemetery where Holodomor victims are buried was levelled to ground in Chernihiv region
In the village of Ivkivtsi in the Chernihiv region, a cemetery with the graves of Holodomor victims was levelled to the ground.
This was reported on Facebook by the National Museum of the Holodomor Genocide, Censor.NET informs.
"The cemetery with the graves of the Holodomor victims was levelled to the ground in Chernihiv region. It happened in the village of Ivkivtsi of the Ladan community in Pryluchchyna. The outrageous incident was reported by the 'Pryluky' TV channel. The journalists went to the village and saw bulldozers and other equipment working at the mass grave site," the report said.
Locals said that no one had warned or consulted them about the work at the cemetery. They immediately appealed to the village head to stop the work, as many of them have relatives who were killed by the famine.
According to the National Book of Remembrance, at least 162 people died of starvation in Ivkivtsi during the Holodomor, including a large number of children. And these are only those whose names have been established. Most of the dead found their final resting place here, in the old cemetery. The villagers still visit the graves of their relatives.
Position of the village council
Roman Yuvchenko, the village head, explains that the work at the cemetery site is carried out by the decision of the executive committee and in accordance with the improvement programme. He added that the area being graded is not considered a cemetery in the local community plan.
"However, the cemetery in Ivkivtsi is listed as one of more than a thousand mass graves on the territory of Ukraine in the geographic information system ‘Places of Mass Graves of the Holodomor Genocide Victims’, which was created by the Holodomor Museum staff in 2019," the museum said.
The National Museum of the Holodomor Genocide appealed to the Head of the Ladanska TG and the Head of the Pryluky District State Administration with a message about the value and importance of preserving this Holodomor-era burial site, as well as with a request to restore the landscaping of the memorial territory and mark it as much as possible.
