Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper issued a thinly closed warning Monday to Russia to stop opposing Ukraine's NATO membership during a visit by President of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko.

Victor Yushchenko, the Head of Ukraine's Orange Revolution that took place in 2004, affirmed his country's aspirations to NATO pose no threat "to any country of world." Russia views the 26-member military alliance as annoyingly encroaching on its traditional sphere of influence by courting new members such as Ukraine. Yushchenko also made clear the striving of NATO membership is rooted in the almost a century of repression his country endured under the former Soviet Union.

That consisted of the 1932-33 famine, at the hands of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, known as the Holodomor that claimed the lives of seven to 10 million Ukrainians, he added.

Harper reported he was optimistic Canada's Parliament would endorse a private member's bill that recognizes Holodomor as a genocide perpetrated by Stalin "in the pursuit of his evil ideology."

Harper added he hoped the move would spark further acknowledgments of the Ukrainian genocide, "and it's very consistent with positions that Canada's taken for some time on several occasions on this question."

The Harper government has also confirmed the Armenian genocide, which has angered its NATO ally, Turkey.

NATO, along with the former Soviet republic of Georgia, is expected to introduce on the first phase of membership later this winter when a formal Membership Action Plan is issued.

NATO was unable to come to consensus on starting the action plan at its heads summit last month in Romania. Although the summit ended with general platitudes endorsing Ukraine's eventual participation, opposition by France and Germany - who do not want to further antagonize Russia - blocked the consensus needed to start the action plan.

Harper mentioned he planned to discuss Ukraine's NATO bid with the heads of France and Germany when he traveled to those countries this week.