Former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko criticized President Viktor Yanukovych for his positions on the 1932-1933 famine, known as the Holodomor in Ukraine, during her address at the events marking commemorating those, who died during the famine.
Yanukovych said earlier this year that it is "unjust" to call the Stalin-era famine that killed millions across the Soviet Union a genocide of the Ukrainian people.
"It is a pity that the current leadership of Ukraine denies genocide, committing outrages upon the memory of millions of victims of Holodomor," Timoshenko said. "This is not an everyday violation of laws, this is a violation of universal norms of morality," she continued.
Yanukovych's statement to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in April marked a complete reversal of the policy of his predecessor, Viktor Yushchenko, who, along with Timoshenko, sought international recognition of the 1932-1933 Great Famine, known to Ukrainians as the Holodomor, as genocide.
The Ukrainian president said not only Ukrainian, but also Russian, Belarusian and Kazakh people starved during the famine.
The Our Ukraine opposition party then accused Yanukovych of violating laws on the denial of the 1932-1933 famine. Under Ukrainian law, it is an offense to deny that the famine was an act of genocide committed by the Soviet state.
More than 3 million people perished in Ukraine due to the famine, and Ukrainian nationalists say Russia, as the legal successor of the Soviet Union, should bear responsibility. Yushchenko, who was known for his anti-Russian policies as president, led Ukraine's efforts to secure international recognition of the famine as an act of genocide.
Yanukovych was elected in February to succeed Yushchenko and swiftly aligned Kiev closer to Moscow, including by agreeing to extend Russia's lease on a naval base in Crimea.
Russia says the famine cannot be considered an act that targeted Ukrainians, as millions of people from different ethnic groups also lost their lives in vast territories across the Soviet Union.
A draft PACE resolution on the famine said it was caused by "cruel and deliberate actions and policies of the Soviet regime" responsible for the deaths of "millions of innocent people," not only in Ukraine, but also in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Russia. Relative to its population, Kazakhstan is believed to be the worst affected Soviet republic, the document says.
KIEV, November 27 (RIA Novosti)
