"From October 27th to November 4th, 86 years ago, the Soviet authorities massacred over a thousand people in the Sandarmokh forest. Among them were prominent Ukrainian writers and poets, artists, scientists, dramatists, and other luminaries shot in the back of their heads in the pine forest on an autumn day. In Ukraine, they are known as the Executed Renaissance. Overall, about six thousand people from sixty different ethnic groups were killed here in 1937-1938." - the minister continued.
The list of prominent people of Ukrainian culture executed by Russians includes poet Mykola Zerov, the founder of “Berezil” theatre Les Kurbas, educators Antin, Ostap, and Bogdan Krushelnytskyi, writers Valerian Pidmohylnyi, Mykola Kulish, Pavlo Filipovych, Geo Shkurupiy, Myroslav Irchan, Oleksa Vlyzko, Valeryan Polischuk, Hryhorii Epik, Marko Voronyi, Oleksa Slisarenko, Mykhailo Yalovyi, historians Matviy Yavorskii, Serhii Hrushevskyi, and many others.
"The USSR hid this crime for five decades, until its demise. Only in 1997 did a group of Russian historians discover the massacre site after lengthy searches. This group, “Memorial”, is currently being oppressed and labelled a “foreign agent” by Putin’s dictatorship. Sandarmokh's leading researcher, historian Yuri Dmitriev, was arrested twice in 2016 and 2018, and was sentenced to 13 years in jail in 2020." - Kuleba wrote.
"These crimes have never been properly prosecuted or punished. And it is precisely this total impunity that has enabled the Russian evil to commit horrible atrocities in Bucha, Izyum, Mariupol, and elsewhere. Ukraine must win this war and bring evil to justice, no matter how long it takes, to ensure Ukrainians right’ to live in peace and safety in their homeland." - Ukraine's Foreign Minister concluded.
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Source: x.com/DmytroKuleba