Holodomor cannot be termed genocide - PACE

17 Dec, 2009 06:19 / Updated 14 years ago

A famine that killed millions in the Soviet Union in the 1930s cannot be described as a genocide that targeted the Ukrainian people, the Council of Europe has said.

A member of the Russian delegation to the Council's Parliamentary Assembly, or PACE, said the word genocide was removed from a draft report on the famine put forward by Ukraine.

The report's findings and a draft resolution are expected to be published in January.

Moscow says the famine killed people throughout the Soviet Union, not just in Ukraine, and that Kiev is trying to politicize the tragedy.