Candles will burn in windows across Ukraine and in Ukrainian homes around the world this afternoon as the country marks Holodomor Remembrance Day, the annual commemoration of the millions who died in the man-made famines of the twentieth century.
The official day falls on the fourth Saturday of November and is observed with a national minute of silence at 16:00, followed by the lighting of candles in homes and at memorials.
In his address for this year’s commemoration, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Ukrainians wherever they live to place a candle in their window at 4 p.m. as a “testament to memory” for the victims of “one of history’s gravest crimes”. He said Ukrainians “have not forgotten” the dead and “will never forgive Moscow for this genocide”, linking remembrance of the famine directly to the country’s present-day resistance to Russian aggression.
Candles of remembrance will be lit today at 4 p.m. wherever there are Ukrainians. These millions of testaments to memory for the victims of one of history’s gravest crimes will show that Ukrainians have not forgotten and will never forgive Moscow for this genocide.
We all know… pic.twitter.com/GrggZtPhql
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) November 22, 2025
The Holodomor – literally “death by starvation” in Ukrainian – refers to the famine of 1932–33 in Soviet Ukraine, widely regarded by historians as a man-made catastrophe driven by policies of forced collectivisation and grain requisitions under Joseph Stalin. Contemporary scholarship generally estimates that between 3.5 and 5 million people died in Soviet Ukraine as a result of the famine, with rural communities disproportionately affected.
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Public discussion of the famine was suppressed in the Soviet Union for decades; open research and commemoration began only in the late 1980s. In independent Ukraine, Holodomor Remembrance Day was established by presidential decree in 1998 and is now marked each year with church services, official ceremonies at the National Museum of the Holodomor-Genocide in Kyiv, and community events across the country.
A central element of the day is the nationwide campaign often referred to as “Light a Candle” or “Candle in the Window”, initiated in the early 2000s and now firmly embedded in the commemorative calendar. At 4 p.m., Ukrainians are invited to place a lit candle in their window or at local memorials as a sign of remembrance and as a simple, visible act that can be carried out equally by those in Ukraine and members of the diaspora.
This year’s presidential message explicitly recalls not only the 1932–33 Holodomor, but also the mass artificial famines of 1921–23 and 1946–47. Ukraine’s official name for the day – the Day of Memory of the Victims of the Holodomors – reflects this broader historical frame. Zelenskyy linked these events to the present, stating that “once again we are defending ourselves against Russia, which has not changed and once again brings death”, and calling for unity in defence “just as we are united in preserving our national memory”.
Internationally, recognition of the Holodomor as genocide has expanded in recent years. In December 2022, the European Parliament adopted a resolution formally recognising the famine inflicted on Ukraine in 1932–33 as genocide and calling on states and international organisations that had not yet done so to follow suit. As of early 2025, Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs records that 35 countries have recognised the Holodomor as genocide, alongside the European Parliament and various regional bodies. In October 2024, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution on the 90th anniversary of the Holodomor, noting that Ukraine “once again faces the threat of genocide”.
The legal characterisation of the Holodomor remains a subject of debate in international law. Some expert bodies, including the advisory committee to the Dutch government, have highlighted the difficulty of applying the 1948 Genocide Convention retroactively to events that preceded it, while acknowledging the targeted nature of Soviet policies towards Ukraine. Economic historians and political scientists, meanwhile, continue to examine the mechanisms of grain procurement and internal border controls that contributed to mass starvation, and to assess whether these policies constituted an attempt to destroy Ukrainians as a national group.
For many in Ukraine, the link between past and present is central to today’s commemoration. European media and analysts have noted how debates on recognition of the Holodomor have intensified since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, as parliaments in several European states draw parallels between the Soviet-era use of famine and contemporary Russian actions, including strikes on Ukrainian grain infrastructure and efforts to instrumentalise food exports. Research institutes have also documented cases where Russian occupying authorities have vandalised or removed Holodomor memorials in territories under their control, framing remembrance of the famine as “incorrect” history.
Beyond Ukraine, Holodomor Memorial Day is formally observed in Canada, where federal legislation recognises the 1932–33 famine as an act of genocide and designates the fourth Saturday of November as a day of remembrance. Ukrainian communities across Europe, North America and further afield are marking today’s anniversary with church services, vigils and educational events; global Ukrainian organisations have called on communities to coordinate local observances and join the candle-lighting campaign.
Zelenskyy’s address concludes with a statement of continuity between remembrance and present-day resistance:
“We defended Ukraine, we defend it now, and we will always defend it. Because this is our only home. And in our home, Russia will never be the master.”
For Ukrainians lighting candles at 16:00 – whether in Kyiv, in European capitals or in diaspora communities further afield – today’s act of commemoration is framed not only as a tribute to those who died in the famines of the last century, but also as an assertion of national survival in the face of renewed war.
