KIEV, November 28 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine does not think Russia is to blame for the 1932-1933 Holodomor famine, President Viktor Yushchenko said.
"We do not accuse Russia, we do not accuse the Russian nation," he told the Inter TV channel prior to Saturday's commemoration of a Holodomor anniversary by the ex-Soviet state, adding that the country that is to blame does not exist now.
In late 2006, Ukraine's parliament recognized the Stalin-era famine known as Holodomor as an act of genocide by the Soviet authorities.
Russia says the famine cannot be considered an act that targeted Ukrainians, as millions of people from different ethnic groups also lost their lives in vast territories across the Soviet Union.
Kiev has been seeking international recognition of the famine as an act of genocide. Last year, the United Nations General Assembly refused to include a discussion of the famine on its official session agenda.
A number of Ukrainian nationalist parties say that Russia, as the legal successor of the Soviet Union, should bear responsibility for the famine.
