Russian Ambassador Says Was Summoned By Canada Due To Holodomor Comments

TORONTO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 06th December, 2022) Russian Ambassador to Canada Oleg Stepanov told journalists that he was summoned by the Canadian Foreign Ministry over comments on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's characterization of the Holodomor - a Soviet famine during the 1930s.

"Michael Bonser (Director General for Global Affairs Canada) invited me here to deliver a demarche, to convey Canada's position, its disagreement with the embassy's press release regarding the Holodomor, which we distributed five days ago," Stepanov said on Monday.

The Russian Embassy in Ottawa criticized the Canadian government after Trudeau issued a statement promoting the narrative that ethnic Ukrainians were the sole and intentional victims of the Holodomor.

The embassy noted that the famine impacted Ukrainians, Russians, Belarusians and Kazakhs among other people of the Soviet Union as well.

"Actually, no one in Russia denies that people living on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR suffered and died of hunger, but we know well that the Russian Federation - and not just Russians, but all people of the Southern part of Russia - suffered from hunger," Stepanov said.

It is inhumane and unethical to make the Holodomor an exclusively Ukrainian tragedy, Stepanov said. The ambassador urged the Canadian government to find the courage to mention non-Ukrainian victims of the Holodomor next time the topic is brought up.

UNESCO in 2007, and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in 2010, rejected the concept of the Holodomor as a genocide of Ukrainians.