Remains of 150 Victims of Repression reburied at the Lychakivsky Cemetery

On 25 November, Remembrance Day for Victims of Holodomor and Political Repression, several thousand people took part in a prayer and burial service near the Memorial to the Victims of Communist Repression on Shashkevych Square in Lviv.

Priests from different denominations gave the memorial service over three coffins with the remains of victims of the communist regime, and those present lit candles which they placed before the Memorial.

Following this, the participants formed a procession which passed through Lviv all the way to Lychakivsky Cemetery. The procession was led by soldiers bearing a Cross and the three numbered coffins with the remains of victims of Holodomor and Political Repression.

The reburial ceremony was attended by the Head of the Lviv Regional Council Myroslav Senyk, the Deputy Head Yaroslav Pitko, the Mayor of Lviv Andriy Sadovy, State Deputies (MP) Yaroslav Kendzyor and Vasyl Kujbida, leader of the All-Ukrainian Association “Svoboda” [“Freedom”] Oleh Tyahnybok, and others.

In his address, Myroslav Senyk said that there needed to be a court trial like that at Nuremburg of communism’s crimes. Vasyl Kujbida noted that in virtually all European countries at a state level Holodomor had been recognized as an act of genocide, and it was only in Ukraine that parliament had still not managed to pass the relevant law. Andriy Sadovy expressed the hope that in the near future a museum to the victims of political repression would be established on the site of the Lonsk Prison.

The coffins with the remains of victims of Holodomor were then laid to rest in common graves.