United Nations: Russia has taken strong objection to an attempt by Ukraine to ask the United Nations General Assembly to commemorate Ukrainians who died in the great famine in early 1930s.
The Ukrainian Government should not claim that the tragedy had started in the Ukraine and that the famine had been directed at the Ukrainian people, Russian UN Ambassador Vitlay Churkin said, calling such a stance a "political offencive" aimed at igniting animosity between the Ukrainian and Russian people.
The tragedy had also affected the people of his country as also other parts of the then Soviet Union, Churkin asserted as some other diplomats said more people had died in other parts of the Soviet Union than in Ukraine.
A senior diplomat, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that the famine was not the result of something aimed at Ukrainians but of Stalin's policies of collective farming which drastically reduced the food production across the Soviet Union.
So, it could not be equated with "genocide" though one could blame the then government's short-sighted policies.
No credible estimates of number of people who died in the famine are available but the figure could run into millions.
The controversy arose after Ukraine, a former Soviet Republic, moved the General Committee of the Assembly to put the item on its agenda but it was yet unclear whether it has sufficient support for purpose.
Several senior diplomats from non-aligned countries, speaking on the condition of anonymity, expressed the view that the issue could unnecessarily divide the Assembly but were not taking any positions.
Churkin criticised Ukraine, saying that the present government is trying to politicise the 75-year-old tragedy that killed millions of people to detract attention from the country's current political and economic crisis.
