THOUGHTS, FEARS, HOPES AND IDEAS.
PALURAMANN
WHAT SUGGESTS THAT
THE RUSCIST CRIMES IN
UKRAINE CONSTITUTE
“THE CRIME OF GENOCIDE”?
When asked about what the threshold is for calling russia’s atrocities a “genocide”, Professor Francine Hirsch, the author of “Soviet Judgment at Nuremberg”, had only these words to say: “We are well past the threshold for calling this a genocide”. And I painfully agree with that statement.
THERE IS ENOUGH SIGNIFICANT EVIDENCE OUT THERE FOR INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS TO CONFIRM THAT RUSSIA HAS SETTLED TO DESTROY IN WHOLE OR IN PART THE UKRAINIAN NATION.
First, russian soldiers murder Ukrainians on the daily basis as well as cause them serious bodily and mental harm. The russian occupied territories suffer vastly from the deliberately created conditions calculated to bring about the destruction of the Ukrainian nation itself.
The targeted bombing of innocent civilians, cases of rapes, the kidnapping of Ukrainian children, forced deportation of 2 million Ukrainians to russia, the targeted murder of local Ukrainian political leaders and activists, destruction of the Ukrainian culture – russia has breached the Genocide Convention and all moral laws in existence in international law.
Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such:
KILLING MEMBERS OF THE GROUP
Once we look at the atrocities russian soldiers are committing in Ukraine, we can always see their distinct plan of annihilating as many Ukrainians as possible once the territory is temporary occupied, as well as when it is suitable for russia to inflict yet another terror to manipulate the world’s opinion on certain matters. As of July, deliberate bombings are committed every single day on the city centers of various regions of Ukraine, with up to 1000 people located there.
Bucha massacre is an evident example of mass killings, in which there has been a clear pattern of deliberately annihilating Ukrainian men by lining them up with their hands behind their backs and shooting them at point-blank range. Additionally, there have been reports of basements being used as torture chambers, where countless bodies were found burned and mutilated. As of now, approximately 1300 bodies have been recovered from the town, including 31 children.
Yet Bucha is by far not the only city where the genocidal acts can be witnessed. Ukraine’s counteroffensive reveals more butcheries to have been committed by russia, such as Izium with more than 400 bodies found in one massive grave. Moreover, many settlements in 8 regions liberated by Ukrainian forces have documented countless mass slaughters committed by russian troops, with many more cities suffering even more under russian occupation. Nobody knows what horrors will be documented there.
But what I do know is that the eventual revelation of enormous mass graves in these towns will constitute a peak of russia’s genocidal policy against the Ukrainian people.
CAUSING SERIOUS BODILY OR MENTAL HARM TO MEMBERS OF THE GROUP
Intentional attacks on evacuation routes and agreed humanitarian corridors, air raids of shelters (especially when there are signs reading “children”), deliberate terroristic attacks on the city centers, and continuous bombardment of residential areas – these are the infamously typical methods russia uses not only to inflict as many injuries or deaths of Ukrainian people as possible but to also cause 44 million people to experience what will continuous trauma for generations.
The pinnacle of such a brutal imposition of violence is considered to be numerous reports of russian soldiers organizing the so-called “safari” for Ukrainian children in the occupied regions.
DELIBERATELY INFLICTING ON THE GROUP CONDITIONS OF LIFE CALCULATED TO BRING ABOUT ITS PHYSICAL DESTRUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART
MARIUPOL
IMPOSING MEASURES INTENDED TO PREVENT BIRTHS WITHIN THE GROUP
As was already mentioned in chapter 2, the ICTR established for the first time that acts of rape were defined as those that could constitute genocide. In the context of Ukraine, the russian federation was and still is using sexual violence and rape as a pattern to establish a proper terror to control civilians and brutally silence any possible resistance. Women and girls constituted most of the alleged victims, while some reporting instances of sexual violence were also men and boys. There have also been cases where molested children were not even old enough to be considered a toddler.
A national hotline set up to track any notion of gender-based violence happening in Ukraine has received countless shocking reports consisting of the stories about gang rape as well as coercion, where Ukrainians were forced to watch russian soldiers commit horrid acts of sexual violence against their partner, their parent or their child. As of June, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights had obtained reports of 124 acts of sexual assault across Ukraine, with Ukrainian sources stating that there have been more than 400 – with new cases coming every single day.
Furthermore, there has been official documentation of revolting situations, where russian soldiers have told their victims that they would continuously rape them “until they stopped wanting sexual contact with any man in order to prevent them from giving birth to Ukrainian children”. Also, due to the continuous heavily shelling of certain territories committed by russia, women hiding in shelters for days don’t have any ability to access medical treatment. The daily stress from these conditions contributes to the development of such diagnoses as breast cancer and even infertility. Lastly, the sinister command from the wife of the russian soldier to “go and rape Ukrainian women” constitutes a clear incitement to continue committing genocidal acts against the Ukrainian people.
We need to pay attention to the testimony of victims of other crimes about the genocidal rhetoric they heard. Quotations are important to preserve, because they can speak to a policy of preventing the possibility of childbearing within a certain group.
Lastly, international institutions need to be more active in combating such heinous crimes instead of always waiting too long to act. According to Pramila Patten, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict:
“An active battle-ground is never conducive to accurate ‘book-keeping’ […] if we wait for hard data and statistics, it will always be too late”.
FORCIBLY TRANSFERRING CHILDREN OF THE GROUP TO ANOTHER GROUP
Currently, the strongest argument for the international lawyers that genocide is happening in Ukraine is the deportation of Ukrainian children and a simplified procedure for their adoption in russia. Furthermore, russian officials have themselves admitted to transferring more than 200 000 children, including orphans, for further assimilation through re-education.
According to the law on simplified registration of orphans, an application and an ID are enough for registration. That means that all orphans abducted by russia will receive the so-called “social support” and the government will not impose any accountability for residence without registration.
Moreover, the State Duma and russia’s Ministry of Education have prepared a deal with the illegally proclaimed “DPR” and “LPR,” in which any russian family can “legally” adopt an orphan from the occupied territories of Ukraine – with russian citizenship not being an essential requirement for taking custody of a Ukrainian orphan. That addition enables so many horrid crimes to happen after the “adoption”, such as child trafficking, or even worse.
All these statements that russia openly publishes must be documented to shown how synergistic it really is with the procedures of identity emasculation in educational and cultural processes.
INCITEMENT
In the context of Ukraine, propaganda plays a key role in genocidal politics. The International Criminal Court separately criminalizes incitement to the crime of genocide. According to Article 25, Clause 3e of the Rome Statute:
“In accordance with this Statute, a person shall be criminally responsible and liable for punishment for a crime within the jurisdiction of the Court if that person:
e. In respect of the crime of genocide, directly and publicly incites others to commit genocide;”
russian leaders have been inciting genocide against the Ukrainian people for decades, while the russian military only now carries out mass atrocities. They have been audaciously announcing their intent to erase the Ukrainian identity, which they have been describing for some time now as “artificial” and “anti-russian”.
The Ukrainian people have been continuously demonized and referred to as “Nazis”, so that the russian military would without any hesitation carry out a campaign of denazification.
Furthermore, the russian media also contributes a lot to such incitements, with countless state-owned propagandist shows and propagandists themselves spreading hate speech equating denazification with de-Ukrainization 24/7.
THIS IS RUSSIA'S VERY OWN GENOCIDE HANDBOOK.
Moreover, the day after this article came out former russian president, dimitry medvedev, declared
that “Ukrainian identity is one big fake and the goal of the de-Nazification is to change how
Ukrainians perceive their identity.” Just a week later, russian-state “channel one” featured a
“discussion” about the elimination of Ukraine, and such “discussions” have been a reoccurring
feature of this programming.
Numerous published training materials for the russian military on how "Nazism" came to Ukraine are also immensely relevant when talking about incitement, because genocidal intentions – in this case, indoctrination - can be detected in them. Interceptions also play a vital part in establishing genocidal intent.