Thread by Madi Kapparov

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On genocide and why Ukraine is fighting for more countries than you might think

I've been recently told that Ukraine's claims of genocide by the Russians are emotional and unfounded. I beg to differ. 1/
Some mistakenly think that for mass murder to qualify as genocide a certain number of victims needs to be reached. No. Let's look at the official definition of genocide by the UN. It is two-fold. It has a mental element and a physical element. 2/ www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml
Let's start with the physical:
a. "Killing members of the group" - both civilian and military victims count, and there are plenty of both. Bucha, Irpen, Borodyanka, Mariupol. We still don't know how many dead are in the occupied territories of Ukraine. The list is long. 3/
b. "Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group" 4/
www.verywellmind.com/ukrainian-mental-health-during-the-war-5225389
c. "Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part" - Mariupol is 95% destroyed, Kharkiv was indiscriminately shelled until the Russians were pushed back, missile strikes. 5/ apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-business-europe-united-nations-evacuations-d5fead271f5bd1ff19196d9e...
d. "Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group" - Zelenskyy: "Russian troops have destroyed or damaged nearly 400 healthcare institutions: hospitals, maternity wards, outpatient clinics." Remember the Mariupol maternity ward? 6/ www.rferl.org/a/mariupol-maternity-hospital-ukraine-russia-war/31868350.html
e. "Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group" - 121 000 (one hundred twenty-one thousand) children taken to Russia as of April 13. 7/

The number grew to 181 000 (one hundred and eighty thousand) "evacuate" children as of May 2. Adoption rules were also significantly simplified in Russia recently. 8/ spravdi.gov.ua/en/help-for-abducted-orphans-how-russia-adopts-children-from-ukraine/?__cf_chl_tk=MVjw...
Hence, every single requirement on the list for the physical part of the UN definition of genocide is sadly satisfied. All victims, or virtually all, are Ukrainians, which satisfies the deliberate targeting of a group of "a national, ethnical, racial or religious" trait 9/
Obviously, I am providing only some evidence for every point. I am not a legal professional and Twitter is hardly the platform for legal case building. This thread is to prove a point. Now let's get to the mental part or intent, dolus specialis. 10/
The intent is difficult to establish. However, it is not the case with Russia. They have been quite vocal and clear about their plans for Ukraine - they've been consistently denying the country's existence on state TV. Here is an example: 11/

In a since-deleted article on RIA Novosti, a Russian state media outlet, the Russians declared their intent: "...Ukraine will no longer exist as anti-Russia. Russia is recovering its historical completeness, gathering the Russian world, the Russian people together." 12/
And the Russian people are "...in their totality Velikorossy, Belorussians, and Malorossy." Velikorossy, or Great Russians, are what the Russian are calling themselves in this article. Malorossy, or Little Russians, are Ukrainians. This terminology is of old imperial origin. 13/
However, such terminology has been popular among the Russian irredentist circles since the 1990s. And is now adopted by the official authorities, though not openly. Though the article got removed, the Internet remembers. 14/
web.archive.org/web/20220226051154/https://ria.ru/20220226/rossiya-1775162336.html
The Russians were either stupefied by their own propaganda or they severely underestimated the Ukrainians. They are filled with intense hate against the resistance. So much so that they openly call for the murder of two million Ukrainians on state TV 15/

The speaker is not some random wackjob. His name is Aleksey Zhuravlev, he is a member of the Russian State Duma and chairman of the Rodina party. Besides he is first deputy chair of the Duma defense committee and a member of the national defense and security budget committee 16/
Zhuravlev started off his political career in post-Soviet Russia in the ethnocentric The Congress of ethnic Russian Communes. In the early 2000s, he joined Putin's United Russia and started working for the more extreme offshoot Rodina, where Rogozin is one of the founders. 17/
Politicians like him have been used by the Kremlin to probe the public for more extreme ideas and generally could be considered harbingers of the Kremlin's plans. Kremlin's chief herald and court jester position was recently vacated with the death of Vladimir Zhirinovsky. 18/
However, nothing signals intent more than Putin's February 21 speech and Ukraine's history of Holodomor combined. According to Putin: "So, I will start with the fact that modern Ukraine was entirely created by Russia or, to be more precise, by Bolshevik, Communist Russia." 19/
He also added: "...the union republics did not have any sovereign rights, none at all. The practical result was the creation of a tightly centralised and absolutely unitary state..." 20/
en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/67828
"...it is a great pity that the fundamental and formally legal foundations of our state were not promptly cleansed of the odious and utopian fantasies inspired by the revolution, which are absolutely destructive for any normal state..." 21/
"...The virus of nationalist ambitions is still with us, and the mine laid at the initial stage to destroy state immunity to the disease of nationalism was ticking. As I have already said, the mine was the right of secession from the Soviet Union." 22/
Putin's revanchist speech should be viewed through the lens of Holodomor, a Moscow engineered famine to reduce Ukraine's population as a rebellious colony. Putin claimed that the Ukrainians and Russians are "one people." He gave them an option of assimilation. 23/
However, should they resist, which they are, the alternative is death. Putin's Feb 21 speech also lays out the Kremlin roadmap for future conquests - every single former Soviet colony is a legitimate target for the Russians. 24/
Every former Soviet colony is an internationally recognized sovereign state, yet they are infected with "the disease of nationalism." Let me give you the list: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan... 25/
...Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan (going counterclockwise on the Mercator projection). They, the collective Putin, decided to start with Ukraine. And now Ukraine is resisting, holding back the floodgate of Russian fascist imperialism.
Дякую за ваш опір та відвагу
End of thread. 26/
Experts at the ICC produced a massive report on the genocide in Ukraine that Russia committing right now. I am not an expert, go read them: newlinesinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/An-Independent-Legal-Analysis-of-the-Russian-Federations-Bre...
The report's conclusion: "In addition, the report conclusively establishes the existence of a serious risk of genocide, triggering the legal duty of all States to prevent genocide under Art. I of the Genocide Convention." A bit disappointing, but a step in the right direction.
Thank you @JulieFaulk18 for pointing out that such an important piece was published. Now the thread is really done.
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