A statue commemorating the Holodomor famine in central Kyiv. (file photo)
Iceland's lawmakers have recognized the Holodomor -- the 1932-33 famine caused by the policies of the Soviet government in Ukraine -- as genocide. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy expressed gratitude to Iceland on March 23, calling the move "a clear signal that such crimes do not go unpunished and do not have a statute of limitations." Earlier this month, lawmakers in Belgium and Bulgaria also recognized the Holodomor as genocide. The Holodomor took place as communist leader Josef Stalin's police units 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.
