"Stop the atrocities." Eight reasons why the war of the Russian Federation in Ukraine is a real genocide, and the event has come to respond - Foreign Affairs
" This is stated in the material of the influential magazine Foreign Affairs under the title why the war of Russia in Ukraine is a genocide. The author of the publication Christina Kuk is a former adviser to the Bureau for Conflict and Stabilization Operations of the US State Department.
It indicates in detail the signs of genocide that Russia is doing in Ukraine, and explains why it is important for Western countries to immediately recognize this fact for more efficient support for Ukraine and confrontation between Moscow. HB draws the main conclusions of this material, grouping them on a certain characteristics of genocide.
The text was published on July 28 - even before July 29, it became known about the new flashy and terrible crime of the Russian army: the murder of Ukrainian prisoners of war in Olenivka. Every day it becomes more and more clear that Russia is committing the most serious crime in Ukraine, which can only be imagined: genocide, directly writes Khuk.
“The Russian forces have devastated many parts of the country, killing, raping, torturing, deporting and terrorizing the vulnerable civilian population. According to these acts of violence, a terrible logic aimed at the extermination of Ukrainian national identity, the destruction of modern Ukraine as an independent country through the murder and Russification of its inhabitants, ”the author sums up.
It reminds that contrary to a common mistake, this definition is not related to the statistical threshold of killed people. Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin called the genocide "crime" because it encroaches on the fundamental law of the group (ethnic, national, religious, etc. ): the right to exist. It was Lemkin who achieved the consolidation of the term "genocide" in international law and became a co -author of the draft UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide Crime.
According to it, genocide is defined as "any of the actions taken with the intention of destroying-in whole or in part-a certain national, ethnic, racial or religious group as such: modern scientists and lawyers-practitioners offer two important criteria that separate Genocide from other forms of crimes: “For many years, Russian leaders denied the existence of Ukrainian national identity and spoke about the destruction of the Ukrainian nation, which testifies to the deliberate desire to commit genocide […] The Kremlin wants not only to conquer Ukraine, but to destroy the Ukrainianness itself - the author emphasizes.
It reminds that after the invasion of the evidence of such a goal increases. At the same time, Russia's intentions have a feature. If in other countries the motives of genocide were most commonly lying in an ethnic or religious plane, then Putin and other Russian leaders are "fixated on a threat, which is Ukrainian national identity.
" The catalyst was 2014, when the Revolution of Dignity "united the concept of traditional Ukrainian heritage with the values of freedom, self -organization, pluralism and growing multiculturalism - values that contradict more authoritarian Russia.
" Moscow's attempt to destroy Ukrainian identity not only denies Ukraine's sovereignty, but also points to the vulnerability of the Russian Federation and its "unwillingness to coexist with such a national group in the neighborhood", concluding the author of the material on Foreign Affairs. Russian troops in Ukraine demonstrated that in their purposeful cruelty against Ukrainians did not except: they shot civilians close, tortured and raped, deliberately bombed residential complexes.
“These acts are aimed at Ukrainians of any gender, age and socio-demographic group, which goes far beyond certain cases of unjustified rage on the battlefield. The Russian military also killed and offset children, sancing violence against those who do not pose a military threat, ”Khuk emphasizes.
As the most obvious examples, it gives bombardment of the theater in Mariupol, which took away at least 600 lives, and data from Bucha, where local authorities have confirmed the killings of more than 30 children under 18 years of age. “In many other senses, Russia's actions meet different criteria for determining the UN genocide. The reports of rape adults and children indicate Russia's attempt to destroy the ability of Ukrainians to give birth to future generations, ”Khuk writes.
In many cities and settlements that were in the frontline, the Russian army has repeatedly impeded the departure of civilians and blocked evacuation. This once again "indicates that the Russian forces are satisfied not only with the capture of land and the robbery of cities.
" Just as the IDIL fighters during the Jesid genocide blocked them on Sinjar in Iraq in 2014, Russia's actions show that its violence is motivated by the desire to destroy the "problematic" population, especially those whom they cannot "de -Ukrainian", writes the author Foreign Affairs. HUK pays special attention to the maintenance of Ukrainians in the so -called "filtration camps" designed to screech those who cannot be forcibly "Russified".
In fact, those who do not accept the Kremlin's propaganda statements that Ukrainian national identity is an allegedly artificial construct. Numerous reports of human rights organizations, the US State Department and influential media confirm that for those whom the Russian authorities recognize "irreparable" Ukrainians, prepared death, disappearance or torture. The destructive goals of any genocide require an exceptionally high degree of coordination, reminiscent of hook.
It is known that the Holocaust was carried out by a whole galaxy of Nazi bureaucrats. Similarly, hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers and citizens of the Russian Federation are now working to eliminate those whom the Kremlin considers "not subject to" Russification.
Many evidence of the organization of this process in Foreign Affairs shows the following facts: like other historical examples of genocide, many "ordinary" Russians are involved in their country's campaign to exterminate Ukrainians. Responsibility lies not only with the military who commit murder, Khuk emphasizes.
There are organizers of genocide: Russian officials; Officials who work in fictitious "administrations" of the occupied territories, military recruits, planners and advisers, consular workers and children's social services workers who contribute to deportations. The list of "co -authors" of genocide is drawn from Vladimir Putin to local commanders who sign "genocide" military plans and tasks.
Genocide comes from the "blessing" of the highest religious ranks of the Russian Orthodox Church, who approve of the war, as well as propagandists of the state media, who dehumanize Ukrainians and regularly call for their destruction. "No genocide occurs without witnesses who may not approve of the government's actions, but do little to stop them," the author's author concludes. Any genocide requires criminals to consider their victims "insects".
The materials of Russian propaganda media and reports on social networks are abundant with excuses for violence against Ukrainians. In the Russian Federation, such violence is no longer regarded as an unfortunate price of war, but is considered even desirable. Dmitry Rogozin, the former head of Roscosmos, demonstrated this trend in June, when Russia should "end" with Ukrainians, calling them "existential threat to the Russian people, Russian history, Russian and Russian civilization.
" “So let's get it better. Once for all. For the sake of our grandchildren, ”Rogozin wrote at the time. Moreover, in April, the Russian agency RIA Novosti directly defined the purpose of genocide, stating that "denacification will inevitably be de -Ukrainian" that Ukraine's efforts in the construction of an independent state "bring to Nazism" and "Ukrainianism is an artificial anti -Russian structure", which must be liquidated " .
"All signs point to a coordinated, systematic attempt to destroy Ukrainian national identity," Kuk concludes. It calls for the White House and other countries of the world to realize this fact, as well as to adjust its actions and rhetoric, directly recognizing Russia's war with the genocide of Ukrainians. “Politicians in the United States, the Western countries and beyond should be face to face the strict reality of the Kremlin's true intentions.
The fact of genocide in Ukraine fundamentally changes the available variants of political actions, - explains the author of the material. - Typical diplomatic strategies, ceasefires and negotiations on territorial settlement do not stop genocide wars. The event learned this lesson in the fight against the atrocities and aggression of Hitler - and should remember him again.
" Khuk writes that the recognition of genocide does not necessarily push the event to escalation - such steps as the involvement of NATO troops in Ukraine or potential readiness to use nuclear weapons. It voices a number of other measures that could help Ukraine stop the Kremlin's genocide. Among them: the countries of the event should be remembered: if the genocide has gained the scale of a certain level, it can be stopped only by force, emphasizes the hook.
That is why Western military assistance to Ukraine is crucial "to stop the bloody hate of Putin. " Despite the war, the event must make "unprecedented efforts" to expand the capabilities of the Armed Forces to the potential of Na-standards on weapons, logistics, training and maintenance. “Politicians could fairly point out that these are giant tasks. But Russia cannot be allowed to continue to go through a genocide in Ukraine, ”the author insists.
According to her, if Western governments allow the Russian Federation to commit "crime crime", they run the risk of provoked a chain reaction. Russia will dare to continue to insist on its imperial plans, and its autocratic partner China can begin to "play muscles" in pursuit of its own territorial ambitions. Not only life but also a world order will be at stake. Events in Ukraine will determine the future of the event's safety, the Khuk states.
The victory of Ukraine would help to assert international law after attempting to violate the violation of territorial sovereignty, retained the US authority in the international arena, and would confirm the imperative of non -proliferation of nuclear weapons. But it would be even more important to stop the deliberate campaign of genocide, which is a rare danger to the Western world.