Ukraine
is fighting for freedom
Vladimir Putin unleashed the biggest war in Europe since World War Two with the justification that modern, Western-leaning Ukraine was a constant threat and Russia could not feel "safe, develop and exist". Thousands of people have since died, towns and cities such as Mariupol lie in ruins and 13 million people have been displaced. Launching the invasion on 24 February he told the Russian people his goal was to "demilitarise and de-Nazify Ukraine". His declared aim was to protect people subjected to what he called eight years of bullying and genocide by Ukraine's government. Another objective was soon added: ensuring Ukraine's neutral status. But the real reason is that Russia is committsing genocide in Ukraine? Eugene Finkel, an associate professor of international affairs at Johns Hopkins University, believes genocide is underway in Ukraine. He says there is evidence of killings, carried out in Bucha and other places, of people based on their Ukrainian identity.
Genocide is widely seen as the most serious crime against humanity. It is
defined as a mass extermination of a particular group of people - for
example, the murder of six million Jews in the Holocaust of World War Two.
The UN Genocide Convention defines genocide as committing any of the
following "with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national,
ethnic, racial or religious group": killing members of the group. Causing
serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group Deliberately
inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its
physical destruction in whole or in part. Imposing measures intended to
prevent births within the group forcibly transferring children of the
group to another group.