Genocide of the Ukrainian people
On February 24, 2022, Russia carried out a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which became a new stage of Russia's aggression against Ukraine, which began in 2014. During the specified period, Russian representatives committed numerous war crimes, crimes against humanity and acts of genocide.
The denial by the top political leadership of Russia of the right of the Ukrainian nation to exist, to cultural and national identity, indicates genocidal intent and creates the basis for the commission of genocide of the Ukrainian people.
The calls by Russian high-ranking officials and representatives of Russian propaganda media for the "denazification" of Ukrainians, understanding de-Ukrainization, indicate the presence of genocidal intent and incitement to its practical implementation. Criminal proceedings have been opened on charges of public calls for genocide, in particular against Russian propagandists.
The murders, torture, and illegal imprisonment of political, cultural, and religious leaders who promote Ukrainian identity and are bearers of its cultural values in the temporarily occupied territories indicate the commission of acts of genocide. The mass murders in Bucha, Irpen, and Mariupol, Borodyanka, and Gostomel confirm the same pattern of genocidal behavior by Russian military personnel. This should be evidenced by the commission of systematic actions united by a single goal, in particular the operation of Russian filtration camps and a system of torture chambers created by the Russian occupation authorities during the temporary occupation of the territories of Ukraine by the Russian Federation.
A significant number of cases of sexual violence committed by Russian military personnel also have genocidal intent. This element of genocide is related to another - prevention of births due to loss of reproductive function, which is a consequence of sexual violence, torture, castration.
The deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia can also be qualified as an act of genocide in the form of the forcible transfer of children from one group to another.
On April 14, 2022, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the Statement of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine “On the commission of genocide in Ukraine by the Russian Federation”. According to the statement, acts of genocide committed by Russia are: mass atrocities committed by Russian troops in temporarily occupied territories; systematic cases of deliberate killing of civilians and deliberate creation of conditions aimed at the complete or partial destruction of the Ukrainian people; forcible transfer of Ukrainian children to the territory of the Russian Federation and their transfer to a foreign environment for upbringing in order to destroy their self-identification as Ukrainians; widespread cases of violence against authoritative figures in Ukrainian society; systemic actions of the Russian Federation aimed at creating conditions designed to gradually destroy the people of Ukraine through the undermining of economic potential and security.
On April 27, 2023, the PACE recognized the deportation and forced transfer of Ukrainian children to the territory of the Russian Federation as having signs of genocide. On May 22, 2023, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly recognized Russia's crimes against Ukraine as genocide.
The Prosecutor General's Office opened a major criminal case into the fact of the genocide of the Ukrainian people. Volodymyr Lysyk, Associate Professor of the Department of International Law, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv
