Vitaly Churkin, Russia`s United Nations ambassador, called the statement of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry on the Ukrainian famine of 1932-33 a unique document, which does not include any sentence of true.
“It is interesting because literally every its provision, even seemed to be the most innocent, is false”, V.Churkin claimed to a press conference on Tuesday, RIA Novosti reported.
“It is a unique diplomatic document: sometimes one or two exaggerations may happen, but there, everything, in fact, is contrary to the real state of affairs”, the diplomat stressed.
According to him, even the first sentence in the statement of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry of October 23, which reads that “The UN General Committee, after debates, postponed the adoption of recommendations on putting the issue of Holodomor of 1932-33 on agenda of the UN General Assembly”, is false.
“Even this first sentence includes many, to put it mildly, inaccuracies”, V.Churkin claimed.
According to him, the UN General Committee could not make decision because its session was disrupted by delegations from USA, UK, and Ukraine.
V.Churkin also criticized Ukraine`s attempts to have the U.N. recognize the famine as genocide.
Although he said he regretted what he perceived to be the politicization of this issue on the part of Ukrainian officials, he argued that although Ukrainians suffered during Stalin`s reign, so did all Soviets. Some suspect that Ukraine might desire reparations from the Soviet Union`s legal successor - Russia.
According to Itar-Tass, the Russian UN Ambassador also said that the United States is trying to set people of Ukraine and Russia against each other with the Great Famine issue.
He said the United States was thus “resolving the hard task of pushing Ukraine into NATO while 80% of Ukrainian citizens objected to the Ukrainian drawing into the North Atlantic alliance.”
The U.S. and British delegations were rude and kept interrupting the chair of the UN General Assembly’s General Committee, which was considering the Assembly agenda, Churkin said. The General Committee discussed the possible attachment of the Ukrainian draft resolution on the Great Famine to the agenda.
“The Great Famine and Ukrainian genocide claims create a certain background for another mainstream ideological action of the Ukrainian administration, i.e. glorification of Ukrainian accomplices of the Nazi,” he said. “The most illustrative example of this glorification is the Hero of Ukraine title posthumously awarded by the Ukrainian president to one of the most notorious leaders of Ukrainian Nazis, Shukevich, in 2007.”
“The Babiy Yar tragedy is the most vivid symbol of Holocaust,” Churkin said. “Plenty of those who killed Jews in Babiy Yar were Ukrainian accomplices of the Nazi.”
All that “is totally discordant with the United Nations Organization, which was established amid the victory of the anti-Hitler coalition, and principles of this organization,” he said. “Russia has been fighting against the phenomenon for more than three years. Each year it offers a resolution that condemns the appearance of new forms of racism and glorification of nazism, and each year the resolution gains support of the UN General Assembly. We hope that the resolution will enjoy broader support this year than in 2007 when it was approved by 130 states.”
“European nations regularly abstain in the vote on the draft Russian resolution that condemns glorification of the Nazi. Maybe, the United States, which has taken up history and has become hyperactive in the Great Famine issue, will finally support the resolution. So far, only two states – the U.S. and the Marshall Islands – voted against our resolution last year for reasons I would call inexplicable,” Churkin said.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine has been seeking international recognition for the Stalin-era famine, known as the Holodomor, as an act of genocide by the Soviet authorities following a similar move by Ukraine`s Supreme Rada in late 2006.
The United Nations General Committee refused last Thursday to include the famine on its agenda, supporting Russia`s recommendation to exclude the Holodomor from the UN session.
The European Parliament adopted a resolution on Thursday declaring the famine of 1932-1933, that caused the deaths of millions of Ukrainians, a crime against humanity.
