German parliament labels starvation of Ukrainians under Soviet regime ‘genocide’

BERLIN (AA) – Germany’s parliament adopted a resolution on Wednesday labelling the starvation of millions of Ukrainians under Soviet regime as “genocide.”

The non-binding but symbolically significant resolution passed overwhelmingly, as lawmakers from Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s liberal-left coalition and the main opposition Christian Democrats voted in favor of it.

The socialist Left Party and the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany abstained.

The resolution accuses Soviet Union under the leadership of Josef Stalin for “targeted mass killings” in Ukraine between 1932 and 1933.

It asserts that the famine in these years was not a consequence of crop failure, but as a result of the deliberate policies of the political leadership of the Soviet Union, which collapsed in 1991.

“From today's perspective, this suggests a historical-political classification as genocide. The German Bundestag shares such a classification,” the resolution said.

The Holodomor tragedy is considered one of the most painful events in the history of Ukraine.

At least 3.9 million people starved to death between 1932 and 1933 as a result of Stalin’s policies, according to the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory.

The Soviet Union implemented the collectivization of its agricultural sector between 1928 and 1940 to integrate individual landholdings and labor into collectively controlled and state-controlled farms.