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Russia is responsible for inciting genocide and committing atrocities that show “intent to destroy” the Ukrainian people, concluded a new legal analysis signed by more than 30 independent experts.
The report, released Friday by the Washington-based New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy and the Montreal-based Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights, also concludes that there is a “serious risk of genocide in Ukraine” and that states have a legal obligation to prevent genocide. .
It cites denials by high-ranking Russian officials and state media commentators about the existence of a separate Ukrainian identity and dehumanizing claims that Ukrainians are Nazis and “therefore deserve punishment.” The report also mentions the rewarding by Russian authorities of soldiers suspected of mass murder in Ukraine, among other evidence.
“Proponents of inciting propaganda are extremely influential political, religious and state media, including President Putin,” the report said. “There is growing evidence that Russian soldiers have internalized and responded to the state’s propaganda campaign by covering its contents while committing atrocities.
Genocide, often seen as an extreme 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 is Russia committing it in Ukraine?
Friday’s joint report includes contributions from about three dozen experts on genocide and international law, including several former ambassadors and others involved in the creation and production of international criminal tribunals.
Their analysis shows a genocidal pattern of targeting Russian forces against Ukrainian civilians, including evidence of mass executions and torture of civilians in Russian-occupied areas such as the Kiev suburb of Bucha, as well as deliberate attacks on shelters, evacuation routes and humanitarian corridors; sieges of Ukrainian cities; and indiscriminate bombings of residential areas. The report also cites sexual violence and reports of the forcible deportation of Ukrainians to Russia.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has accused Russian forces of committing genocide in Ukraine, as well as organizations such as 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 in applying the label.
States committed under the 1948 Genocide Convention to “prevent and punish” genocide. But that doesn’t necessarily oblige them to intervene militarily, experts told The Washington Post last month.
Countries with “strong political ties to Russia” have a greater responsibility to use their influence to stop the genocide in Ukraine, the report said – and all countries must help protect Ukrainians by providing humanitarian corridors and access to medical care. care, and assist in the detention of Russians. soldiers responsible for the atrocities.
“We understand that there is a reluctance to invoke the Genocide Convention,” Irwin Kotler, international chairman of the Raoul Wallenberg Center, wrote in an afterword. “But in this case, the comprehensive and systematic atrocities against Ukrainians impose these decisions and the responsibility for action.
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