LVIV, Ukraine -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrived here in Ukraine's nationalist heartland to denounce communism's bloody legacy and declare the 1932-33 famine a Soviet-concocted genocide.

Harper didn't use that term Monday in his meeting in Kyiv with President Viktor Yanukovych, who has sided with Moscow's view that the millions who died due to dictator Joseph Stalin's land policies weren't targeted because of their nationality.

Harper also announced $36 million in aid, for projects to improve Ukraine's customs service, job training, municipal economic development, regional governance, and juvenile justice reform.

He made his comment about genocide at a Catholic university that was warned earlier this year to not let students protest Yanukovych's education minister, who has moved to remove references of the 2004 Orange Revolution from school textbooks.