According to a respected expert on genocide and political violence, Russia has committed genocide in Ukraine.
As a genocide scholar, I usually dismiss rhetoric. Activists apply genocide claims almost everywhere now, so I take them with a lot of salt. Not now. There are actions and intent. It is as genocide as it gets. Eugene Finkel is an associate professor with the School of Advanced International Studies at the University of Baltimore.
The suburb of Bucha was recently captured by Ukrainian forces. Many of the 300 people killed were buried in mass graves, according to the mayor. Some of the dead were found with their hands tied behind their backs.
Russia's actions in Ukraine qualify as genocide for two reasons, according to Finkel. Evidence over the weekend shows that the incident was intentional. 2. Russia is coming out with rhetoric. It doesn't deny that ordinary people need to be punished, but it doesn't deny that Ukraine should be a national entity.
The Russian invasion did not start with clear genocidal intent, but evolved into one, according to Finkel.
Regime change and colonial subjugation are not enough to constitute genocide.
The genocide scholar said he resisted applying the term to Russia until Monday morning, adding that the combination of more and more evidence, from different places, and even more importantly, explicit official rhetoric, has changed.
In a speech just days before the full-scale invasion began, Putin suggested that Ukraine was not a real country. The Russian leader claimed that Ukraine was led by neo-Nazis. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish and lost family in the Holocaust, underscoring the farcical nature of Putin's claims.
Russia has used the same brutal tactics in conflicts in Chechnya and Syria as it has in the war. Over 1,400 civilians have been killed in the war so far, but the actual figures are likely to be higher according to the UN.
According to Human Rights Watch, there are cases of Russian forces committing war crimes against civilians in occupied areas of the Chernihiv, Kharkiv, and Kyiv regions of Ukraine. There were instances of rape, summary executions, and other forms of violence against civilians.
Human Rights Watch said in a statement that the cases they documented amount to "unspeakable, deliberate cruelty and violence against Ukrainian civilians."
At a press conference in Warsaw on Monday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that thehorrors that we have seen in Bucha are just the tip of the scale of the crimes that have been committed by the Russian army.
The situation in Mariupol is worse than what we have seen in other cities, towns, and villages nearby.
Russia has been accused of committing war crimes. The Russian government firmly rejected the allegations. Moscow denied any involvement in the massacre and pushed conspiracy theories, claiming that the disturbing images that have emerged out of the Kyiv suburb are fake.
President Joe Biden didn't call Russia's actions genocide, but he called Putin a war criminal and called for him to be brought to trial.
Jake Sullivan is a national security advisor. We've seen war crimes. Sullivan told reporters on Monday that there has not yet been a level of systematic deprivation of life for the Ukrainian people to rise to the level of genocide.
Zelenskyy accused Russia of genocide.
Zelenskyy said in an interview that this is genocide. We have over 100 nationalities, we are the citizens of Ukraine. This is about the destruction of all the nationalities.
The Prime Minister of Poland accused Russia of genocide.
Genocide is a politically charged term with varying interpretations and definitions.
Lemkin defined genocide as a plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups.
The UN defines genocide as acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.
Finkel said that the UN or legal definition is problematic because it doesn't offer clear thresholds, but that it still fits like a glove in the case of Russia.
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