Europe’s parliament declares 1930s famine in Ukraine ‘genocide,’ says episode mirrors current events

The European Parliament on Thursday formally recognized as “genocide” the 1930s famine that killed millions of people in Soviet Ukraine under Joseph Stalin, drawing a link to events following Russia’s invasion in February.

The resolution was approved by 507 members of the European Parliament to declare the 1932-1933 famine — known as the Holodomor — was a deliberate move by Soviet officials to commit genocide against the Ukrainian people.

Parliament members “strongly condemn these acts, which resulted in the deaths of millions of Ukrainians, and call on all countries and organizations that have not done so to follow suit and recognize it as genocide,” officials said Thursday.

They were quick to point out parallels between events from almost a century ago and the situation in Ukraine today.

“Russia’s current war of aggression against Ukraine, the destruction of its energy and agricultural infrastructure, the blocking of the exports of Ukrainian grain, and the theft of millions of tons of grain by Russia have rekindled fears of large-scale artificial starvations, particularly in the south, which depends on low-cost Ukrainian grain,” the resolution states.

In the resolution, the parliament accused Stalin’s regime of deliberately confiscating grain crops and sealing the borders to prevent Ukrainians from fleeing from starvation.

The death toll from forced collectivization in Ukraine was staggering. Even the most conservative accounts of the Holodomor say at least 3 million people starved to death, while some estimates are as high as 10 million.