Ukraine war: Kyiv likens Russian 'genocidal' tactics to Soviet-era 'Holodomor' famine
Ukraine accused the Kremlin on Saturday of using the same "genocidal" tactics that it used against it in the 1930s under Josef Stalin, on the 90th anniversary of the Soviet-era famine that has taken on new resonance since the Russian invasion.
The country has received a stream of further messages of support, as several European leaders travelled to Kyiv for the commemorations of the Holodomor, which Ukraine considers was "genocide".
It comes as Ukraine grapples to repel invading Russian forces and deals with massive power outages across the country after waves of Russian air strikes on vital infrastructure.
In November 1932, Soviet leader Stalin dispatched police to seize all grain and livestock from newly collectivised Ukrainian farms, including the seed needed to plant the next crop. Millions of Ukrainian peasants starved to death in the following months from what some historians say was premeditated mass murder.
"On the 90th anniversary of the 1932-1933 Holodomor in Ukraine, Russia's genocidal war of aggression pursues the same goal as during the 1932-1933 genocide: the elimination of the Ukrainian nation and its statehood," Ukraine's foreign ministry said in a statement.
"The political and ideological narratives of the Stalinist era, in particular presenting the image of the so-called 'hostile West' and the denial of the existence of Ukraine as an independent state, are actively reproduced today."
"The Russians will pay for all of the victims of the Holodomor and answer for today's crimes," Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine's presidential administration, wrote on Telegram.
"Once they wanted to destroy us with hunger, now – with darkness and cold," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote, also on Telegram. "We cannot be
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