Russian envoy says Israeli bill on Ukraine's Stalin-era deaths a "wrong step"
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JERUSALEM - A Russian diplomat cautioned Israel on Wednesday over a proposed law that would formally recognise the deaths of millions of Ukrainians under Soviet rule as a genocide.
"This is not a good time to discuss such a proposal," Leonid Frolov, Russia's deputy ambassador in Tel Aviv, told Israel's Army Radio. "It will be bad. It will be (the) wrong step."
He was referring to preliminary legislation, submitted by a lawmaker from a centrist party in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's governing coalition, that would declare Dec. 6 as "Remembrance Day for the Ukrainian Genocide" in Israel.
Ukraine's Holodomor, or death by starvation of as many as 10 million people in 1932-33, was denied by the Soviet Union for decades. Ukraine passed a resolution in 2016 appealing for world recognition of the Holodomor as genocide, angering Moscow.
The Israeli bill is still far from ratification, and faces opposition within the ruling coalition. While Netanyahu's office did not immediately comment, rightist Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman called the bill's author, Akram Hasson, "delusional".
Hasson told Reuters he proposed the law after making a three-month fact-finding trip to Ukraine to examine the issue.
"I don't know how anyone can be angry about this, and I'm under no obligation to please anyone," he said. "I work for the parliament
