Russia resorts to ethnic cleansing in Ukraine - ISW
Russia’s actions in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, reported by Russian officials, fall under the definition of ethnic cleansing.
This was stated in daily summary by Washington Institute for the Study of War (ISW), reports Censor.NЕТ with reference to LigaBusinessInform.
Experts note that "Russia continues to carry out mass forced deportations of Ukrainians, which appear to be part of a campaign of deliberate ethnic cleansing in addition to clear violations of the Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said on October 14 that "several thousand" children from the Kherson region "are already in other regions of Russia, resting in rest homes and children's camps.
ISW notes that earlier the Russian authorities openly admitted that they intend to give children from the occupied regions of Ukraine for adoption to Russian families. Experts point out that this could be qualified as a violation of the Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide.
The summary also states that the Russian authorities may pursue a policy of ethnic cleansing by deporting Ukrainians and settling Russian citizens in occupied cities.
ISW points out that ethnic cleansing itself is not a crime under international law, but is labeled by the UN commission on violations of humanitarian law in the former Yugoslavia as "the granting of ethnic homogeneity by force or intimidation to evict certain groups. and as "the deliberate policy of one ethnic or religious group to evict by violent and terrorist means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographical areas.
Experts note that these definitions are fully consistent with reports of the forced deportation and adoption of Ukrainian children, as well as with reports from Ukrainian sources that occupier projects to rebuild Mariupol involve the settlement of "tens of thousands of Russians".
