In a video statement marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on the world to “overcome indifference,” saying it “kills along with hatred.”
“Today, as always, Ukraine honors the memory of millions of Holocaust victims,” Zelensky said, according to an official translation of his remarks.
“We know and remember that indifference kills along with hatred. Indifference and hatred are always capable of creating evil together,” he continued.
“That is why it is so important that everyone who values life should show determination when it comes to saving those whom hatred seeks to destroy.
“Today, we remember the Righteous Among the Nations, different people in different countries who were equally determined to save lives. Today, we remember the determination of the global coalition that stopped Nazism.
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“And today we repeat it even more strongly than before: never again to hatred; never again to indifference. The more nations of the world overcome indifference, the less space there will be in the world for hatred.”
“Eternal memory to all victims of the Holocaust!” Zelensky concluded.
The Ukrainian president later paid a visit to Kyiv’s Babi Yar Holocaust memorial site.
Also on Friday, the Ukrainian military published a video of soldiers performing Eli, Eli,” the famous prayer by Hannah Szenes, who parachuted into Hungary during WWII and was captured and killed in 1944.
Amid Russia’s nearly year-long invasion of Ukraine, officials from both sides have made comparisons to the Holocaust.
World War II and Nazism have been important tools for Russian President Vladimir Putin in his bid to legitimize his moves in Ukraine, while some Ukrainian officials have said the invasion is comparable to the Holocaust.
