PACE commemorated 90th anniversary of Holodomor and called to oppose the war as new stage of Russia’s genocidal policy towards Ukraine
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe unanimously supported the resolution "Commemoration of the 90th anniversary of the Holodomor - Ukraine is again facing the threat of genocide", in which it noted that the current aggressive war of the Russian Federation should be considered in the context of the previous attempt to destroy the Ukrainian nation and considered a new stage of Russia's genocidal policy.
This was reported by Censor.NET, citing Ukrinform.
"The Assembly believes that the consistent destruction of first political and cultural leaders, and then millions of independent peasants was clearly aimed at genocide. Genocide, as defined by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1948, does not require the physical elimination of all members of the target group. It is enough that the living conditions are so severe that the existence of the group as such, in whole or in part, is threatened," the document says.
The PACE expresses its deep concern over the threat of genocide faced by Ukraine in the full-scale war unleashed by the Russian Federation. In this regard, it emphasizes Russian propaganda, including statements at the highest level, which denies the very right of the Ukrainian people to exist as an independent nation.
The methods used by the Russian military in the war against Ukraine and the actions of the illegal Russian authorities in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories show that these statements are not just threats, the document says.
The PACE emphasized that the massacres in Bucha, Irpin and other cities, the use of powerful explosives, thermobaric and cluster munitions in densely populated areas are war crimes, and given their large-scale, systematic nature, crimes against humanity.
It also emphasizes the siege and destruction of cities, systematic shelling and destruction of vital civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, systematic tracking and ill-treatment of representatives of the Ukrainian political and cultural elite in the TOT, forced recruitment of residents of the temporarily occupied territories into the Russian army, and systematic destruction of Ukrainian cultural heritage sites.
"The forcible transfer and deportation of tens of thousands of Ukrainian children to the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories or to remote regions of the Russian Federation and Belarus constitutes a war crime, a crime against humanity and may well constitute an element of genocide," the resolution says.
The PACE recognizes the Holodomor as an act of genocide against the Ukrainian people and calls on all national parliaments to adopt relevant statements. The Assembly calls on governments to do everything possible to help the people of Ukraine fight against the genocidal attack and to bring to justice those responsible for crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The ICC Prosecutor is invited to consider the possibility of investigating reports of accusations of genocide against the Ukrainian people, including the facts of the displacement of Ukrainian children.
As a reminder, at the final session of the OSCE Ministerial Council in December 2023, 43 countries adopted a joint statement on the 90th anniversary of the Holodomor, in which they condemned this crime of the Stalinist regime against the Ukrainian people.
The Holodomor was recognized as a genocide of the Ukrainian people by the parliaments of about three dozen countries, the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, as well as the Catholic Church and the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
