Allegations of genocide of Ukrainians in the Russo-Ukrainian War
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
During the Russo-Ukrainian War, national parliaments including those of Poland,[7] Ukraine,[8] Canada, Estonia,[9] Latvia,[10] Lithuania[11] and Ireland[12] declared that genocide was taking place. Scholars and commentators including Eugene Finkel,[13][14] Timothy D. Snyder[15] and Gregory Stanton;[16] and legal experts such as Otto Luchterhandt[17] and Zakhar Tropin,[18] have made claims of varying degrees of certainty that Russia is committing genocide in Ukraine. A comprehensive report by the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights[19] concluded that there exists a "very serious risk of genocide" in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Allegations of genocide of Ukrainians in the Russo-Ukrainian War | |
---|---|
Part of the Russo-Ukrainian War | |
Location | Ukraine |
Date | 2014[1][2] – present |
Target | Ukrainians as a national group[3] |
Attack type | Incitement to genocide and genocide (mass killings, deliberate attacks on shelters, evacuation routes, and humanitarian corridors, indiscriminate bombardment of residential areas, deliberate and systematic infliction of life-threatening conditions by military sieges, rape and sexual violence, and forcible transfer of Ukrainians, including deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia) with the intent to destroy the Ukrainian national group[3] |
Deaths | ~10,000[4]–40,000 Ukrainian civilians[5] |
Perpetrators | Russian Federation Russian Armed Forces Belarus[6] |
Defenders | Ukraine |
Motive | Russian irredentism, anti-Ukrainian sentiment, Russification |
Genocide scholar Alexander Hinton stated on 13 April 2022 that Russian president Vladimir Putin's genocidal rhetoric would have to be linked to the war crimes in order to establish genocidal intent, but it is "quite likely" that Russia is committing genocide in Ukraine.[16] War crimes committed by Russian forces include sexual violence,[20] torture, extrajudicial killings and looting.[21]
On 17 March 2023, following an investigation of war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russian Commissioner for Children's Rights, for the unlawful deportation and transfer of children from Ukraine to Russia during the invasion.[22] According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, over 307,000 children were transferred to Russia from 24 February to 18 June 2022, alone.[23] In April 2023, the Council of Europe deemed the forced transfers of children as constituting an act of genocide in with an overwhelming majority of 87 in favour of the resolution to 1 against and 1 abstaining.[24]