Addressing lawmakers on Holodomor Memorial Day, which commemorates the victims of the devastating Soviet-era famine, Viktor Yushchenko said: "I am not asking, but demanding that the Ukrainian parliament recognize the 1932-1933 Holodomor as an act of genocide against the nation. This is a duty of the Supreme Rada, a historical imperative."
Between 7,000 and 10,000 million people, or nearly one-third of Ukraine's population, were starved to death during the Holodomor, believed to have been provoked by Soviet ruler Joseph Stalin to propel his nationwide farm collectivization campaign in the land once known as the USSR's breadbasket.
"I am asserting on behalf of the Ukrainian people that the Holodomor victims should be honored as martyrs in one of the gravest catastrophes in the history of humankind," Yushchenko said.
On November 2, the president submitted a bill to classify the Holodomor as an ethnic genocide inflicted by the Soviet authorities on the Ukrainian people, and to prohibit its public denial.
According to surveys, more than 60% of Ukraine's residents believe that although the Holodomor was a state-sponsored campaign, it targeted all of the Soviet Union's population, not just ethnic Ukrainians. Only a quarter regard it as ethnically motivated.
