Pope Francis Reflects On ‘Tormented’ Ukraine Marking Holodomor Remembrance Day

Russia on November 25 unleashed the largest wave of drone attacks on Ukraine since the start of the war, wounding several people and causing damage, with Kyiv bearing the brunt of the attack, in what President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called “an act of willful terror.”

The attack occurred as Ukraine marked Holodomor Remembrance Day, which commemorates the 1932–33 man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine under dictator Josef Stalin that killed millions.

“Russia launched around 70 Shahed drones at Ukraine precisely on the eve of the Holodomor genocide commemoration day,” Zelenskiy wrote on X.

Ukraine’s air defense said in a statement that it had shot down 74 out of a total of 75 drones launched by Russia, with more than 60 drones being downed over Kyiv.

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“Our warriors shot down the majority of the drones, but not all of them,” Zelenskiy wrote. “We keep working to strengthen our air defense and unite the world in the fight against Russian terror. The terrorist state must be defeated and held accountable for its actions.”

“Russian barbarians staged the most massive drone attack on Kyiv and the air alert lasted six hours,” Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram, adding that at least five people, including an 11-year-old child, were injured by debris from the drones shot down by air defense. All of them received medical treatment, he said.

He said several districts of the capital were hit, with the most affected being the Solomyanskiy district, where a fire started by falling debris damaged a kindergarten.

“This drone strike was the largest since the full-scale invasion began,” the head of the Kyiv city military administration, Mykhaylo Shamanov, told Ukrainian television.

The attack damaged a power line in the capital, leaving 120 institutions and 77 residential buildings in the center of the capital without electricity, Kyiv’s military administration said.

The Ukrainian military’s General Staff said in its November 25 evening report that Russia had launched 99 air strikes during the day and shelled Ukrainian positions and settlements 38 times with multiple-launch rocket systems.

It also said there were 42 combat clashes and that the operation situation in the east and south “remains difficult.”

The General Staff added that Ukrainian forces had hit 11 sites of concentrations of Russian troops during the day.

Ukraine has been bracing for an expected increase in Russian attacks targeting its energy infrastructure during the cold season in a repeat of Moscow’s air campaign last winter that left millions of Ukrainians in cold and darkness and destroyed critical power facilities.

Speaking at the Grain from Ukraine summit in Kyiv, Zelenskiy on November 25 said Ukraine needs more air defenses to protect its grain export routes.

“There’s a deficit of air defense. That is no secret,” he told the international gathering attended by senior officials from several European states.

In a separate address on the occasion of the Holodomor Remembrance Day, Zelenskiy called on the world to “unite and condemn the crimes of the past,” and at the same time “unite and stop today’s crimes.”

“Ninety years ago, the world could not fully see what was really happening [in Soviet Ukraine]. Now, there are only those who choose not to notice what is happening [in Moscow’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine]. They are not many, and they will be fewer and fewer. The truth is making its way,” Zelenskiy said.

The Holodomor, during which up to 4 million Ukrainians perished, has been recognized as genocide by almost 30 countries.

The U.S. State Department marked the day as well, saying that “during Josef Stalin’s regime, harsh and repressive policies were imposed upon Ukraine, including a deliberate famine that killed millions of innocent Ukrainian women, men, and children.”

“Since July, Russia has destroyed hundreds of thousands of tons of Ukrainian grain, along with grain infrastructure. As we remember the victims of the Holodomor, and we reaffirm our enduring commitment to Ukraine’s people, their freedom, and their democracy.”