Aggressive war, total violence and deportation of children may be signs of genocide of Ukrainians by Russia - State Department
Ukrainian authorities have documented more than 66,000 war crimes committed by Russian army in Ukraine. United States has recognized that Russia has committed crimes against humanity in Ukraine.
This was stated by Beth Van Skaak, Ambassador for Global Criminal Justice at the U.S. Department of State, in an interview with Voice of America, informs Censor.NЕТ.
"We have reviewed all the evidence - open-source evidence, classified evidence, reports from human rights organizations, etc. - and found that Russia is indeed waging a large-scale and systematic attack against Ukrainian civilians. This draws attention to the brutality of Russia's actions and will also lay the groundwork for accountability in the future. It's very important to call a spade a spade and I think that's exactly what Vice President Kamala Harris did at the Munich Security Conference," Van Skaak said.
The United States also recognized that Russia is guilty of rape, murder by execution, torture, and forced deportations.
"And this applies not only to executions of civilians, but also to prisoners of war held in Russian captivity, as well as to the large-scale use of torture. Every time the Russian forces leave the territory, investigators and journalists find secret torture rooms where, quite obviously, people were detained and horribly mistreated. We have witness testimonies. The third crime against humanity that we considered was sexual violence, as well as the massive transnational infrastructure for the deportation of Ukrainian civilians, including, as we know, many children who were forcibly removed from the country and then sent to remote parts of Russia. These are four crimes against humanity, based on which the decision was made," the State Department spokesperson explained.
She clarified that the definition of genocide to some extent coincides with the elements of the definition of crimes against humanity, but it is necessary to prove the intention to destroy a group of people in whole or in part.
"Speaking about the issue of de-Ukrainization, all this rhetoric from Russia that Ukraine does not exist as a country, that Ukrainians are not a national group, that it is a fiction - these things are in line with what we have heard in similar situations where genocide was committed. We are talking about the brutality of violence, such as sexual violence, which has no military purpose, or attacks on Ukrainians trying to evacuate," Van Skaak said.
She clarified that there are at least three signs of genocide against Ukrainians.
"This is Russia's war of aggression and it is an aggressive war that Russia is waging, committing war crimes literally everywhere Russian troops are deployed. Starting with deliberate, indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks against civilian infrastructure. And when investigators, journalists and lawyers get to the place where Russian troops have retreated, they see violence of a completely different order. This is interpersonal violence, torture, sexual violence. Another issue is the deportation of children. Yale University recently published a report that 6000 children were taken from their families in Ukraine and forcibly deported to Russia. They have no contact with their families, they are not allowed to contact them. This could also potentially be the third sign of genocide," the State Department spokesperson said.
