Kiev: Ukraine on Saturday held a day of mourning for the millions of victims of a Soviet-era famine, as the war-torn nation’s leaders branded it a Russian attempt to destroy the country.
The 1932-33 famine, one of the darkest episodes in Ukrainian history, happened when Stalin’s forces launched a campaign of forced “collectivisation”, requisitioning grain and other foodstuffs and forcing many farmers into starvation.
President Petro Poroshenko, accompanied by hundreds of Ukrainians, laid symbolic wheat ears and lit candles before the central Kiev monument to victims of the Holodomor famine — which means “death by hunger” in Ukrainian.
Poroshenko dubbed the famine a crime against humanity. “We will never forget the terrible crime of the organisers of the Holodomor,” he said in a statement.
Oleksandr Turchynov, who heads Ukraine’s Security and Defence Council, meanwhile accused the Russian “imperial regime” of causing the famine.
“Now there is a war and we again see manic attempts to destroy Ukraine,” he said in a statement, referring to the ongoing separatist war in the country’s east.
A conflict between Russian-backed fighters and Ukrainian troops has killed more than 10,000 people since 2014, when pro-Russian forces declared parts of eastern Ukraine independent following Moscow’s annexation of Crimea.
Kiev and its western allies accuse Russia of plotting and backing the insurgency, which Moscow denies.
Ukraine regards the famine as a genocide specifically aimed by Stalin’s regime at eradicating the Ukrainian peasantry.
Fourteen countries, including the United States, Australia and Canada, have recognised the famine as an act of “genocide” against the Ukrainian people, in a move which irritates Moscow.
Before holding a minute of silence, Poroshenko said he hoped that Russia too would one day recognise the famine as a genocide, “or at least repent for it”. The magnitude of the death toll remains controversial among historians, with estimates ranging from four to 10 million. Ukraine has remembered the victims of the famine on the fourth Saturday of November since 1998. — AFP
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