House of Representatives of Belgium recognized the Holodomor as genocide

The House of Representatives of Belgium recognized the Holodomor of 1932-1933 as genocide of the Ukrainian people, said President Volodymyr Zelenskyi on his Twitter page.

“Historic vote in the House of Representatives of Belgium: yet another state recognized the Holodomor of 1932-1933 as genocide of the Ukrainian people. Thank you to Belgium for this important decision for every Ukrainian, for this deeply symbolic step today,” the message reads.

The Holodomor, a man-made famine that took place between 1932-33, occurred during Joseph Stalin’s reign over the Soviet Union and caused an estimated 3.5 to 5 million Ukrainian deaths.

The Ukrainian government has been calling on the international community to recognize it as a genocide.

Belgium joins several other countries which have already recognized the Holodomor as a genocide against the Ukrainian people, including the Czech Republic in April 2022, Germany, Romania, and Ireland in November 2022, and Bulgaria in February 2023.

In December 2022, the European Parliament also officially recognized the Holodomor as a genocide and urged Russia to issue an official apology for the atrocities committed by the Soviet regime.