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Ukraine marks the 85th anniversary of the Stalin era famine, known as Holodomor, in which millions of people died of starvation.
Before the anniversary, the US State Department described what it called "artificial famine" as "one of the most atrocious acts of the twentieth century".
The department also referred to Russia's "ongoing aggression" in eastern Ukraine, where fighting between Ukrainian government forces and Moscow-backed separatists has made more than 10,300 dead since April 2014.
The Holodomor took place in 1932 and 1933, when the Soviet authorities forced Ukrainian peasants to join collective farms by requisitioning their grain and other food products.
Estimates of the number of famine victims range from 3 million to 7 million.
Every year on the fourth Saturday of November, Ukraine celebrates the Holodomor Victims Remembrance Day in honor of those who died during the tragedy, which many Ukrainians regard as a act of genocide to annihilate their farmers.
Moscow refuses any systematic attempt to target Ukrainians, saying that a poor harvest at the time had wiped out many people in other parts of the Soviet Union.
The Holodomor was an "artificial" famine, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said in a statement posted on his website. Facebook page of November 24th.
"In the name of the preservation of Ukraine, we must always remember the terrible crimes committed by the communist regime on Ukrainian lands," he added.
At the same time, the Russian Foreign Ministry called the famine a "major humanitarian disaster" that also affected the Russians, Kazakhs and others.
"Attempts to portray these tragic events exclusively as an act of" genocide of the Ukrainian people "have nothing in common with the restoration of justice or historical facts," the ministry said. VKontakte page.
WATCH: A woman reveals how her great-grandfather secretly photographed the suffering in the city of Kharkiv.
In one declaration Released on November 23, the state department said the victims had been "deliberately put to death by the Josef Stalin regime".
"The barbaric seizure of Ukrainian lands and cultures by the Soviet Union was undertaken with the deliberate political aim of subjugating the Ukrainian people and nation," the statement added.
"Today, Ukrainians are dying as a result of Russia's attempts to destroy the Western identity and aspirations of the Ukrainian people," the statement added, citing "the aggression persistent Moscow in the east of Ukraine ".
However, Russia "will not defeat the resilient Ukrainian spirit, nor repress the desire of Ukrainians for a better future," added the State Department, reaffirming the "unwavering support" of the United States to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.
With Ukraine, at least 15 other countries have officially recognized the Holodomor as a "genocide" – but not the United States.
October 3, the US Senate adopted a non-binding resolution recognizing that Stalin and his entourage had committed genocide against the Ukrainians in 1932-1933.
The European Union describes the Ukrainian famine as a "frightful crime".
Relations between Moscow and Kiev – as well as its Western backers – deteriorated dramatically after Russia's conquest of the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine in March 2014 and the support provided to separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of the country. Is from Ukraine.
