Ukraine has been seeking international recognition for the Stalin-era famine, known as the Holodomor, as an act of genocide by the Soviet authorities following a similar move by Ukraine's Supreme Rada in late 2006.
The United Nations General Committee refused last Thursday to include the famine on its agenda, supporting Russia's recommendation to exclude the Holodomor from the UN session.
Said Vitaly Churkin: "The Ukrainian leadership is using this historical humanitarian tragedy for its own political ends, as well as to spread ethnic animosity... and divert the attention of its own people from the ongoing political and economic crisis in Ukraine."
He said the issue was being politicized, as was evident from, among other things, Ukraine's attempt to include the issue in the UN agenda.
A senior Ukrainian MP said on Friday that the UN's recognition of the Holodomor would give Kiev legal grounds to claim moral and financial damages from Russia.
The European Parliament adopted a resolution on Thursday declaring the famine of 1932-1933, that caused the deaths of millions of Ukrainians, a crime against humanity.
The European Parliament stopped short of using the word "genocide." Its resolution "recognizes the Holodomor (the artificial famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine) as an appalling crime against the Ukrainian people, and against humanity."
According to the resolution, the Holodomor "was cynically and cruelly planned by [Soviet leader Joseph] Stalin's regime in order to force through the Soviet Union's policy of collectivization of agriculture against the will of the rural population in Ukraine."
Estimates vary widely as to the number of deaths in Ukraine in the early 1930s caused by the forced collectivization, along with the devastating purges of the Ukrainian intelligentsia, religious leaders and politicians under Stalin. Some sources cite figures of over 7 million.
The EU parliament also urged "the countries which emerged following the break-up of the Soviet Union to open up their archives on the Holodomor in Ukraine of 1932-1933 to comprehensive scrutiny so that all the causes and consequences can be revealed and fully investigated."
Russia has consistently rejected Ukraine's interpretation of the tragic events.
In July 2008, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe adopted a resolution that condemned the famine but stopped short of recognizing it as an act of genocide.
