President Viktor Yushchenko on Saturday denied any notion that Russia was to blame for the Ukraine's mass famine of the 1930s engineered by Josef Stalin and urged Moscow to join commemorations for millions of dead.

Yushchenko was speaking at the opening of a 26-metre (80-foot) tall monument to mark the 75th anniversary of the famine at ceremonies boycotted by the Russian president.

Russia objects to Ukraine's insistence that the famine amounts to "genocide" against Ukraine's people. The row is one of many pitting the Kremlin against Kiev's pro-Western leaders swept to power by mass "Orange Revolution" rallies in 2004.

These include payment for Russian gas supplies, Yushchenko's drive to secure NATO membership and Ukraine's call for Russia's Black Sea Fleet to leave its base in Crimea by 2017.

"We appeal to everyone, above all the Russian Federation, to be true, honest and pure before their brothers in denouncing the crimes of Stalinism and the totalitarian Soviet Union," Yushchenko told guests shivering in snow and drizzle.

"We were all together in the same hell. We reject the brazen lie that we are blaming any one people for our tragedy. This is untrue. There is one criminal: the imperial, communist Soviet regime."

Historians say some 7.5 million people died in the famine, aimed at breaking the spirit of Ukraine's independent farmers. Soviet authorities denied for decades that it had occurred.

Yushchenko had earlier avoided references to Russia in restating his conviction that the famine was "genocide".

"The famine of 1932-33 was not death by starvation, it was murder through starvation. This was the essence of the genocide ... It was an artificial famine, with a clear aim and clearly planned," he told a conference in Kiev's opera house.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, who like Yushchenko is seeking NATO membership for his ex-Soviet state, went further, though he also refrained from referring to Moscow.

Saakashvili said attempts to downplay the famine showed "the ideology of evil remains alive. Even 75 years after the tragedy, the seeds of evil still grow in some individuals..."

OBAMA'S MESSAGE

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama said future generations should be kept aware of the famine. About a dozen countries have declared the famine a "genocide" of the Ukrainian people.

Russia dismisses any such notion, saying many ethnic groups were affected. President Dmitry Medvedev stayed away from the ceremonies and accused Yushchenko of distorting history.

As commemorations gathered pace, other rows dividing the ex-Soviet states came to the fore, mainly gas giant Gazprom's allegations of $2.4 billion in Ukrainian arrears for gas as the two sides pressed on with negotiations for 2009 supplies.

Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov on Saturday said the company could not ensure 2009 deliveries without a new contract.

Ukraine currently pays $179.50 per 1,000 cubic metres of gas and Kupriyanov said the market price for 2009 would be $400, a level dismissed by Ukrainian officials as "political".

Moscow opposes NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia and was deeply angered by Yushchenko's support for Tbilisi in the brief war pitting it against Russia in August.

NATO foreign ministers next month will re-examine a bid by both states to receive a "Membership Action Plan" - a fast track to membership. A NATO summit last April turned down the request, but said the two countries would eventually join the alliance.