The European Parliament has passed a resolution that declared Holodomor — the starvation of millions of people in Ukraine in the 1930s under Soviet leader Joseph Stalin — a “genocide”.
In a resolution adopted on October 15, the European Parliament recognizes the famine inflicted by the Soviet regime on Ukraine in 1932-1933 – known as the Holodomor – as genocide. MEPs strongly condemn these acts, which resulted in the deaths of millions of Ukrainians, and call on all countries and organizations that have not yet done so to follow suit and recognize it as genocide.
The European Parliament states that the whitewashing and glorification of the totalitarian Soviet regime and the revival of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s cult has led to Russia being today a state sponsor of terrorism. MEPs also condemn “the horrific Russian crimes being carried out once again against the Ukrainian people, such as the targeted destruction of Ukraine’s civilian energy infrastructure during winter.”
Drawing links to Soviet times, the resolution accuses the current Russian regime of violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, seeking to liquidate Ukraine as a nation state and destroying the identity and culture of its people. It also condemns the fact that the ongoing war has created a global food crisis, with Russia destroying and looting Ukraine’s grain stores and continuing to make it difficult to ensure Ukrainian grain exports to the most deprived countries in the world.
The Holodomor, also known as the Terror-Famine or the Great Famine, reportedly was a man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 that killed millions of Ukrainians. The Holodomor was part of the wider Soviet famine of 1932–1933, which affected the major grain-producing areas of the Soviet Union.
While scholars universally agree that the cause of the famine was man-made, whether the Holodomor constitutes a genocide remains in dispute. Some historians conclude that the famine was planned and exacerbated by Joseph Stalin in order to eliminate a Ukrainian independence movement. Others suggest that the famine arose because of rapid Soviet industrialization and collectivization of agriculture.
Ukraine was one of the largest grain-producing states in the USSR and was subject to unreasonably higher grain quotas, when compared to the rest of the country.[20][21][22] This caused Ukraine to be hit particularly hard by the famine. Early estimates of the death toll by scholars and government officials vary greatly. A joint statement to the United Nations signed by 25 countries in 2003 declared that 7–10 million died. However, current scholarship estimates a range significantly lower, with 3.5 to 5 million victims.
Since 2006, the Holodomor has been recognized by Ukraine alongside 22 countries, as a genocide against the Ukrainian people carried out by the Soviet regime.
