Is it accurate to characterize Russia’s war against Ukraine as genocidal in nature?
What is the Link between the Deportation of the Crimean Tatars and the War in Ukraine?
Published
15.05.2025
The deportation of the Crimean Tatars and the current Russia-Ukraine war are directly connected, as both stem from the same underlying cause — Russian imperialism, which hasn’t changed for over 80 years. In 1944, the Russian regime perceived the culturally distinct and united Crimean Tatar people as a threat and subjected them to a genocidal deportation from their ancestral homeland. Today, Russia denies Ukrainians their right to exist as a sovereign nation within the borders of an indivisible Ukraine, so it has launched a brutal war with a clear genocidal intent.
The official justification for the deportation was the claim that the entire Crimean Tatar population had collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II. The Soviet regime accused them of desertion and siding with the Germans. In truth, the majority of those deported were defenseless elderly people and women whose husbands were serving in the Red Army.
This forced displacement revealed the true nature and ideology of Stalin’s regime. Stalin and his repressive apparatus deeply distrusted ethnic minorities living in the border regions of the USSR. They blamed the Crimean Tatars for the Red Army’s failures during the Crimean campaign — which saw German forces occupy the peninsula by late 1941. The shortcomings of the Soviet partisan movement in Crimea were also pinned on them.
Agents of the Soviet secret police NKVD stormed into homes, accusing families of “betraying their motherland” and ordering them out of Crimea. They were given just 15–20 minutes to pack. Officially, each family was allowed up to 500 kg of belongings — in practice, they were forced to leave nearly everything behind. People were transported by trucks to railway stations, then crammed into locked and overcrowded cattle cars. Аround 8,000 people died during the journey — most of them children and the elderly. The most common causes of death were thirst and typhus. Some lost their minds from the suffering. The state seized all property left behind in Crimea.
The deportees were left to fend for themselves in the open fields of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan. With no clean water, poor sanitation, and no medical aid, infectious diseases spread rapidly. Within the first three years of exile, between 20% and 46% of the deported population died from hunger, exhaustion, and disease, according to different estimates. Nearly half of those who died in the first year were children under the age of 16.
The deportation of the Crimean Tatars was an act of genocide. To this day, the Russian narrative denies the existence of the Crimean Tatar people or portrays them as inferior. The persecution of Crimean Tatars continues in occupied Crimea. Since the Russian occupation began on February 26, 2014, resistance to Russian rule has persisted. As of May 2025, around 180 individuals from Crimea are held by the Kremlin as political prisoners — 116 of them are Crimean Tatars.
Russia’s war against Ukraine follows the same imperialist logic — a drive to subjugate and erase nations living on territories that Russia deems its own. When Putin speaks of eliminating the “root causes” of the war, he means eliminating the very idea of Ukrainians as a distinct people. He refers to Ukraine as “anti-Russia.” Russian imperialism remains a destructive force, seeking to dominate, destroy, and absorb.
Can we call Russia’s war against Ukraine a genocide against the Ukrainian people?
Published
16.05.2025
Taking into account the facts, Russia’s actions against the Ukrainian people have the genocidal nature and can be considered a genocide. However, the official confirmation of this fact by the International Tribunal requires some time.
Genocide is massive destruction of people on the grounds of race, nationality or religion.
The massive destruction of Ukrainians by the occupation troops is an internationally confirmed fact. The shooting of civilian Ukrainians in Bucha (also known as the Bucha massacre) was recognized by the EU, NATO and the UN as an international crime and condemned by the leaders of dozens of countries around the world.
Russian leaders also make genocidal statements. Putin’s deputy at the Security Council of Russia, Medvedev, has stated numerous times in his social media posts that Russia will always be at war with Ukraine until the latter exists as a separate country. Should we take this seriously? Yes. He is a high-ranking government official, the second person after Putin at the Security Council and the Military-Industrial Commission, who, in addition, has a significant influence on his audience through his personal information channels. Therefore, regardless of the character’s reputation, these statements are made by a public official.
The “denazification” announced by Putin himself can also be regarded as an undisguised policy of destruction.
However, time is needed for the status of genocide to be recognized. It can be confirmed only by the International Tribunal whose investigations may take decades. The latest act of genocide officially recognized in the world is the July 1995 Srebrenica massacre. It was only in 2007 that the International Tribunal defined it as an act of genocide against the Bosnian Muslims.
This text is based on materials from the Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security.
Why did Russia invade Ukraine on February 24, 2022?
Published
16.05.2025
Russia invaded Ukraine because it needs our resources – territorial, natural, human. It needs to maintain influence, demonstrate its own power and prevent us from developing following the example of successful European states. However, this is a practical dimension and, let’s say, Putin’s short-term plans. In fact, he continues Russia’s century-old imperial policy. Speaking more globally and from a historical point of view, Russia’s ultimate goal has remained unchanged for centuries – the complete destruction of Ukraine, the subjugation of Ukrainians and their erasure as a separate nation, and the seizure of all Ukraine’s resources. In addition, Russia is trying to appropriate the history and heritage of Kyivan Rus.
Russia’s primary goal was the political occupation of Ukraine, and the time of Yanukovych’s presidency was quite successful in this sense. But after the Revolution of Dignity and Yanukovych’s escape from the country, the Kremlin saw that it was “losing Ukraine.” Russia occupied the Ukrainian Crimea, deployed its fighters in Luhansk and Donetsk regions, and organized quasi-state entities on the occupied territories – the so-called “LPR and DPR” (“Luhansk People’s Republic and Donetsk People’s Republic”). During all these years, Russia tried to impose its terms on us in the Minsk negotiation process and thus bring representatives of these territories to the Verkhovna Rada in order to influence Ukrainian politics from the inside. In other words, it was supposed to be a kind of Trojan horse.
However, Russia failed to achieve this goal. Meanwhile, Ukraine distanced itself from Russia even further and escaped from its domination. Pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine were increasingly marginalized year after year, pro-Russian Medvedchuk’s channels were sanctioned and could no longer influence Ukrainian society.
The combination of all these factors led to the fact that Putin decided to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. On February 24, 2024, Russia began implementing this scenario and was confident of a quick victory. The initial plan to capture Kyiv was projected for an operation lasting three to five days. A similar plan was implemented by the Soviet Union in Hungary in 1956, in Czechoslovakia in 1968, and in Afghanistan in 1979. The Kremlin expected that “Ukrainians would welcome the Russian army with flowers”, so the Russian military carried with them ceremonial military uniforms and medals, expecting a quick victory parade in the center of Kyiv.
The Russians called their attack on Ukraine an “operation” aimed at “demilitarization” and “denazification” of Ukraine. However, the blitzkrieg was unsuccessful and Ukraine continues to fight, repelling their aggression. The Russians commit war crimes on the territory of Ukraine massively and systematically every day. They indiscriminately and absolutely brutally kill Ukrainians, kidnap and completely re-educate Ukrainian children, teaching them to hate Ukraine, looting Ukrainian resources from the occupied territories. But all these are only intermediate “achievements” of the Russians. The ultimate goal of Russia as an imperial state is the final destruction of Ukraine and its subjugation, the genocide of the Ukrainian people. And Russia has always dreamed of taking our history from us and pretending to be the successor of Kyivan Rus.
Is it safe to live in Ukraine now?
Published
16.05.2025
Part of Ukraine’s territory is temporarily occupied by Russia, and Russians are committing genocide there. Some cities are within range of enemy artillery, and the entire country is under constant threat of missile and drone attacks.
Russians are committing real genocide in the temporarily occupied territories, including murder, torture, deportation, and the total destruction of any signs of Ukrainian identity.
Every region of Ukraine can come under a missile or drone attack. Russian terror against Ukrainian civilians continues on a daily basis. Here are some examples of Russia’s major terrorist attacks during the full-scale war: an air strike on the Mariupol theater (Donetsk region), a missile attack on the building of Mykolaiv Regional State Administration (Mykolaiv region), a missile attack on a shopping center in Kremenchuk (Poltava region), a missile attack on Vinnytsia, a missile attack on the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital in Kyiv, and more.
As for Mariupol, investigations by a number of foreign organizations unanimously indicate that it was a Russian aircraft that dropped a bomb on the Drama Theater in the city center on March 16, 2022, which could have killed about 600 people.
On March 29, 2022, a missile partially destroyed the building of the regional state administration in Mykolaiv, killing 37 people and injuring 36.
In June 2022, the Russian army fired a missile at the Amstor shopping center in Kremenchuk, killing 21 people and injuring 59. An attack on a cultural center and office buildings in Vinnytsia killed 28 people and injured nearly 200.
On July 8, 2024, Russia once again launched a massive attack on Ukraine, hitting, among other places, the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital in Kyiv, completely destroying the intensive and efferent therapy department for chronic intoxication and seriously damaging several other hospital buildings. In total, seven districts of the capital were affected that day, 33 people died and 121 were injured.
Thus, almost all Ukrainians live with the constant feeling of being a target. During the first 14 months of the full-scale invasion, from February 2022 to April 2023, a total of 24,637 civilian casualties were recorded, including dead, wounded, and missing persons. Approximately 90% of these casualties were caused by shelling.
Residents of the regions bordering the territory of Russia or the occupied territories suffer the most from Russian terror. In Sumy region, in May 2024, Russians shelled an average of 26 settlements daily, in June – 19, and in early July – 20. In Donetsk region, these figures are even higher: 27 settlements were shelled on average daily in May, 22 in June, and 31 in early July. In Kharkiv region, the occupation army could shell 16 settlements per day on average in May, 12 in June, and 13 in early July.
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