Russia is ready to help Poland organize events to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre of Polish prisoners of war by the Soviet Union, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday.

Lavrov said Polish colleagues have informed Moscow of their plans for this year's commemoration of the 1940 execution of several thousand of Polish POWs, mainly officers and soldiers, in Katyn, western Russia, which has remained a sensitive issue in ties between Poland and Russia.

"We are interested in helping [Poland] implement those plans on Russian soil," Lavrov told a news briefing.

But Lavrov refused to say whether Russian leaders would attend the events.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin moved to heal the rift over the massacre when he and other world leaders visited the former Communist-bloc state in September 2009 to mark the 70th anniversary of Nazi Germany's attack on Poland and the start of World War II.

Putin described the mass killings as a "crime" but called for "forgiveness."

The Soviet Union acknowledged the massacre, ordered by Joseph Stalin, in 1990. Modern Russia recognized Soviet responsibility for the mass shooting, but has not classified it as a war crime or genocide, something Warsaw has demanded.

Russia has resisted attempts to challenge the Soviet role in World War II, in which 27 million Soviet citizens died, according to official figures. Poland and former Soviet countries such as Ukraine and the Baltic States view Stalin's Soviet Union as an aggressor during the war and have compared it to Nazi Germany.

MOSCOW, January 22 (RIA Novosti)