Speaker of the Seimas: ‘Russia is bent on accomplishing today what it failed to carry through during the Holodomor’

Press release, 24 November 2022

Photo of the Office of the Seimas (author Olga Posaškova)

Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, Speaker of the Seimas, opened Thursday’s Seimas sitting by summoning the politicians to pay tribute to the victims of the Holodomor, the man-made famine deliberately provoked in Ukraine 90 years ago. She called on parliaments of other countries and international organisations to follow Lithuania’s suit in recognising the current military actions of the Russian Federation as genocide against the Ukrainian nation and to seek Russia’s accountability for military genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

According to Ms Čmilytė-Nielsen, Russia’s war crimes currently perpetuated in Ukraine constitute a coherent and systematic policy unmistakably targeted at the objectives the aggressor had failed to carry through during the Holodomor. By obstructing the export of Ukrainian grain to countries hit by food shortage, Russia repeatedly proves that, time and again, it employs famine as its perennial tactical and political tool to achieve geopolitical goals. The aggressor weaponizes food, like everything else.

‘The man-made famine deliberately induced in Ukraine between 1932 and 1933 was part of Stalin’s sadistic plan to destroy the Ukrainian identity and do away with peasants and intellectuals who could have restored Ukraine’s statehood and independence. Evidence abounds that the Soviet authorities deliberately seized grain harvests and closed borders tight to prevent Ukrainians from fleeing from hunger. Archival documents also demonstrate that the Soviet Union continued exporting grain abroad even though famine raged in Ukraine,’ the Speaker of the Seimas said.

Although the Holodomor claimed millions of innocent lives, the Soviet government officially denied the tragedy for decades. Denial of the obvious is the same method currently still in use by Russia.

‘Back 90 years ago, the world turned a blind eye on Stalin’s crimes. What the international community owes Ukraine today is at least commemoration and a relevant political stance on the Holodomor,’ Ms Čmilytė-Nielsen said as she urged the politicians to tread in the steps of Lithuania as one of the first countries worldwide to recognise the Holodomor as genocide of the Ukrainian nation.

‘In 2005, the Seimas adopted a statement clearly stating that the totalitarian communist regime under Stalin carried out a deliberate and painstakingly pre-planned genocide of the Ukrainian nation in 1932–1933. The Seimas recalled this again this year, when it unanimously adopted a resolution of 10 May 2022 recognising the current actions of the Russian Federation in Ukraine as  genocide and calling on the establishment of a Special International Tribunal to investigate Russia’s crime of aggression,’ Ms Čmilytė-Nielsen said.

Tomorrow, on 25 November, the Speaker of the Seimas will attend an event co-organised by the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania and the Ukrainian Embassy in Lithuania to commemorate the victims of the Holodomor. She invited Members of the Seimas to light candles at the event as a tribute to the victims.

Ilona Petrovė, Spokesperson for Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, Speaker of the Seimas, tel.+ 370  5 239 6030, mob. + 370 698 42071, e-mail: [email protected], www.lrs.lt