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Russia is responsible for inciting genocide and perpetrating atrocities that show an “intention to destroy” the Ukrainian people, concluded a new legal analysis signed by more than 30 independent experts.
The report, released Friday by the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy in Washington and the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights in Montreal, also concludes that there is “a serious risk of genocide in Ukraine” and that states they have a legal obligation. to prevent genocide.
He cited denials from top Russian officials and state media commentators about the existence of a different Ukrainian identity and dehumanizing claims that Ukrainians are Nazis and “therefore deserve punishment.” The report also notes that Russian authorities rewarded soldiers suspected of mass killings in Ukraine, among other evidence.
“Incentive propaganda providers are all influential political, religious and media figures, including President Putin,” the report said. “There is growing evidence that Russian soldiers have internalized and are responding to the state’s propaganda campaign by echoing its contents while committing atrocities.”
Genocide, often seen as the ultimate crime, has a precise legal definition: “acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.”
What is genocide, and Russia is carrying it out in Ukraine?
Friday’s joint report included contributions from some three dozen experts in genocide and international law, including several former ambassadors and others involved in the creation and proceedings of international criminal tribunals.
His analysis pointed to a genocidal pattern of Russian forces targeting Ukrainian civilians, including evidence of mass executions and torture of civilians in areas occupied by Russian forces, such as the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, as well as attacks. deliberate in shelters. evacuation routes and humanitarian corridors; sieges of Ukrainian cities; and indiscriminate bombing of residential areas. The report also cited sexual violence and reports of the forced deportation of Ukrainians to Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russian forces of committing genocide in Ukraine, as well as organizations such as the Genocide Watch. President Biden first used the term last month to describe Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
But some world leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, have been more cautious about enforcing the label.
Countries committed under the 1948 Genocide Convention to “prevent and punish” genocide. But that doesn’t necessarily force them to intervene militarily, experts told The Washington Post last month.
Countries with “strong political ties with Russia” have a greater responsibility to use their influence to stop the genocide in Ukraine, according to the report, and all countries should help protect Ukrainians by securing humanitarian corridors and access to medical care, as well as helping to contain the Russians. soldiers responsible for the atrocities.
“We understand that there is a reluctance to invoke the Genocide Convention,” Irwin Cotler, international president of the Raoul Wallenberg Center, wrote in an epilogue. “But in this case, widespread and systematic atrocities against the Ukrainians demand such determination and responsibility to act.”