The European Parliament on Thursday adopted a resolution declaring the famine inflicted by the Soviet regime on Ukraine in 1932-1933, known as the Holodomor, an act of genocide.

The document was adopted by 507 votes in favour, 12 against and 17 abstentions in the 705-seat parliament.

MEPs say they want the EU and third countries to raise awareness of the Holodomor and other crimes committed by the Soviet totalitarian regime.

In November 1932, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union that included Ukraine, launched a policy of agricultural collectivisation forcing farmers and agricultural producers to relinquish their land and join collective farms, called kolkhoz. As part of this policy, farmers had to hand over all the grain they had grown to state authorities, which led to an artificially caused famine. An estimated 4.5-10 million Ukrainians died of starvation at the time.

Commenting on those historical developments, Stella Kyriakides, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, told the EP today that the Holodomor was one of the gravest tragedies of the 20th century in which Ukrainians and other people in the Soviet Union suffered.

The EP says on its website that “the whitewashing and glorification of the totalitarian Soviet regime and the revival of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s cult has led to Russia being today a state sponsor of terrorism. MEPs also condemn the horrific Russian crimes being carried out once again against the Ukrainian people, such as the targeted destruction of Ukraine’s civilian energy infrastructure during winter.”

“Drawing links to Soviet times, the resolution accuses the current Russian regime of violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, seeking to liquidate Ukraine as a nation state and destroying the identity and culture of its people. It also condemns the fact that the ongoing war has created a global food crisis, with Russia destroying and looting Ukraine’s grain stores and continuing to make it difficult to ensure Ukrainian grain exports to the most deprived countries in the world.”

The countries and organisations that have not yet recognised the Holodomor as genocide are called upon by the EP to follow suit and recognise it as genocide.