Genocide or War Crimes During the Russia-Ukraine War?

Type:

Book Chapter

Author:

Ivan Katchanovski

Published:

2025

Publisher:

Springer Nature Switzerland

Abstract This chapter analyzes whether there have been genocides or war crimes during the Russia-Ukraine war. The Ukrainian government and media, and initially some of the Western governments and the media, stated that the Russia-Ukraine war involved genocide of Ukrainians. In contrast, the Russian government and the media called the war presented the Russian invasion as a humanitarian intervention aimed at stopping a genocide of ethnic Russians and Russian speakers in Donbas. They denied Russian war crimes or claimed that they were staged. The analysis includes major cases of significant civilian casualties in Ukraine, in particular, in Mariupol, Bucha, Chernihiv, Vinnytsia, Donetsk, and various other locations in Ukraine and evidence-based estimates of civilian casualties. The chapter uses common definitions of genocide and war crimes in political science and the UN Genocide Convention and Geneva Conventions. It shows no evidence of a genocide but various evidence of war crimes, primarily, by the Russian forces.

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