Ukraine s government tried to restore power on Saturday as the country celebrated the 90th anniversary of the Holodomor, the devastating famine that President Volodymyr Zelensky compared to the wave of Russian airstrikes targeting critical infrastructure that left millions cold and in the dark.
The Holodomor, which means death by hunger in Ukrainian, spread through Kazakhstan and southern Russia, but was harshest in Ukraine, where it left entire villages to starve. Ukrainian historians argue that Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin orchestrated a famine brought on by the Soviets who forced the collectivization of farms to crush Ukrainian aspirations for independence.
On Saturday, government officials observed the anniversary of the 1932 -- 33 famine, which is observed annually on the fourth Saturday of November, at a time when President Vladimir V. Putin is accused of using missile strikes on Ukraine's power grid to freeze the country.
"They wanted to destroy us with hunger now - with darkness and cold," said Zelensky in a statement on Saturday.