Foreign Policy writer Azim Ibrahim argues that Russia's war in Ukraine could become genocide and that Moscow is already carrying out ethnic cleansing there.
The brutal nature of the Russian war was evident even before it began, he said, as predicted by Western intelligence sources that many questioned and mocked, that the Russians would enter Ukraine with "kill lists" of potential sources of problems that would be cordoned off and dealt with to facilitate the rule of the country.
This was the plan, he added, even when Russia thought it could achieve a quick victory with minimal resistance.
But after this became impossible, Russian brutality appeared in other ways, as the intractable cities and points of resistance began to be bombed and turned into rubble, and civilian targets across Ukraine were bombed and missiles bombed, and civilians were deported deep into Russia through a network of “liquidation camps.”
As the Russian advance was repelled, the advancing Ukrainian army was confronted with evidence and stories of mass arbitrary executions.
The writer mentioned that the Ukrainians described this as a genocidal attempt through which Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to erase Ukraine as a political and national entity, and to “Rossize” its population by killing some, deporting more, and re-educating others.
The massacres only showed how advanced and brutal this plan really was.
He commented that as director of the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, he personally traveled to Ukraine to investigate the matter and gather evidence.
He noted that the report issued on allegations of genocide in Ukraine was irrefutable, as Russia incites genocide.
What is happening in Ukraine is ethnic cleansing and the International Court of Justice definition indicates that ethnic cleansing “may be significant as evidence of a specific intent (to destroy) a section of the population”.
Evidence for this is increasing every week and confirms Ukrainian allegations that they are facing actual or potential genocide.
He hinted that one of the first pretexts for the war presented by Putin was that Russia sought to deny the organic existence of the Ukrainian nation and identity, and figures within his government described Ukraine as an "artificial innovation", as a result of the movement in Russian and Soviet politics over decades, which is thus implicitly Russia's problem that must Dispose of them as they wish.
Russian political figures also denied that Ukraine has its own language and culture and that there is a distinction between Russian and Ukrainian people.
Mass graves in Buca (Anatolia)
The writer concluded that this matter paved the way for the crimes that followed.
As soon as the war began, Russia began a systematic attack not only on the Ukrainian armed forces, but also on the arteries of the Ukrainian nation.
It attacked infrastructure (water, power, and communications) as well as health care facilities in the besieged cities.
Russian forces seized granaries, confiscated foodstuffs from Ukrainian stores, and sent much of them to Russia.
He added that this artificial deficiency aims to break the will of the civilian population to make them abandon the ideas of independence and Ukrainian, as well as accept Russian rule.
This campaign has been accompanied by a wave of mass killings designed to achieve the same effect.
He pointed out that the most disturbing aspect of the war is the spread of sexual violence, which has become systematic and institutionalized, but is also considered a form of population control for genocide, where the rape of women in war is considered genocide if it is intended to harm the victims so that they do not seek to have their children.
The author concluded his article that what is happening in Ukraine is ethnic cleansing and that the International Court of Justice definition indicates that ethnic cleansing “may be significant as evidence of a specific intent (to destroy) a section of the population.”
Evidence for this is increasing every week and confirms Ukrainian allegations that they are facing actual or potential genocide.