Welsh Parliament Recognizes Holodomor as an Act of Genocide

The Welsh parliament passed a resolution on Wednesday that recognizes the Holodomor, the man-made famine created by the Soviet authorities, as an act of genocide against the Ukrainian people.

According to Darren Millar, a member of the Welsh parliament, the Holodomor has been overlooked for “too long,” and he would therefore “stand shoulder to shoulder” with the people of Ukraine in calling for the formal recognition the Holodomor as a genocide.

He said that the Holodomor was a “dark chapter of Ukrainian history,” and should serve as a reminder of humanity’s wrongdoings.

“[The formal declaration] will serve as a powerful reminder, not only of the human capacity for cruelty and the importance of acknowledging past wrongs, but it will honor the memory of those millions of men, women and children who perished during this very dark chapter of Ukrainian history, giving them the recognition that they deserve,” added Millar.

He also noted that evidence supporting the recognition of the Holodomor as a genocide is “overwhelming,” and referred to Welsh journalist Gareth Jones’s firsthand account of the tragedy that brought the story to light - in 1933, Jones was first to report the catastrophe and brought the story to light in the Western world.

The Holodomor was a man-made famine that took place in Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 under Joseph Stalin. It resulted from a combination of forced collectivization policies, grain requisitioning, and government negligence. As a result of this policy, it is estimated that somewhere 3.5 and 5 million Ukrainians perished.

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This move makes Wales the 35th Western country to formally recognize the Holodomor as an act of genocide.