The European Parliament (EP) has recognized the "artificial" famine in Ukraine caused by the policies of the Soviet government led by Josef Stalin in the early 1930s as genocide.
The legislature on December 15 approved a resolution recognizing the Holodomor, "the artificial famine" in Ukraine caused by "a deliberate policy of the Soviet regime, as a genocide against the Ukrainian people."
In all, 507 EP lawmakers were in favor of the resolution, while 12 voted against it and 17 abstained.
The EP called on Russia, as the legal successor of the Soviet Union, to "officially recognize the Holodomor and apologize for these crimes."
It also called on "all countries and international organizations that have not yet recognized the Holodomor as genocide to do so."
WATCH: In a solemn ceremony on November 26, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, his wife Olena, and a few top officials came to pay their respects in central Kyiv at a statue known as The Bitter Memory Of Childhood, symbolizing the Holodomor.
The famine, known as the Holodomor, took place in 1932-33 as Stalin's police forced peasants in Ukraine to join collective farms by requisitioning their grain and other foodstuffs.
Historians say the failure to properly harvest crops in Ukraine in 1932 under Soviet mismanagement was the main cause of the famine.
It is estimated that up to 9 million people died as a result of executions, deportation, and starvation during the Stalin-era campaign.
Many Ukrainians consider the famine an act of genocide aimed at wiping out Ukrainian farmers.
Along with Ukraine, at least 16 other countries have officially recognized the Holodomor as genocide.
In October 2018, the U.S. Senate adopted a nonbinding resolution recognizing that Stalin and those around him committed genocide against the Ukrainians.
Moscow has long denied any systematic effort to target Ukrainians, arguing a poor harvest at the time wiped out many in other parts of the Soviet Union.
The EP's resolution comes as Russia continues its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine launched in late February.
Moscow has targeted Ukraine's grain storage facilities and blockaded Ukraine's Black Sea exports have sparked accusations that Russia is weaponizing food as part of its strategy in the war.
