The Czech parliament has recognized the famine that took place in Ukraine in the 1930s as genocide.
The Ukrainian ambassador to the Czech Republic, Yevhen Perebiynis, tweeted that Czech lawmakers voted on the decision on April 6 and expressed gratitude for the move.
"Without condemning Stalin's crimes against Ukraine, it is difficult to understand the essence of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's attempts to conquer and destroy Ukraine," Perebiynis added.
The famine, known as the Holodomor, took place in 1932-33 as Soviet leader Josef Stalin's police 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.
It is estimated that up to 9 million people died as a result of executions, deportation, and starvation during the Stalin-era campaign.
Many Ukrainians consider the famine an act of genocide aimed at wiping out Ukrainian farmers.
Along with Ukraine, at least 16 other countries have officially recognized the Holodomor as "genocide."
In October 2018, the U.S. Senate adopted a nonbinding resolution recognizing that Stalin and those around him committed genocide against the Ukrainians in 1932-33.
Moscow has long denied any systematic effort to target Ukrainians, arguing a poor harvest at the time wiped out many in other parts of the Soviet Union.
