In the weeks leading up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Susan Smith-Peter, a professor of history at New York City University, has been following the Russian state media and publishing translations of some of the passages she believes show Moscow’s intention to violate the rules of war. He says that while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for the establishment of a war crimes tribunal similar to the Nuremberg Trials that followed World War II, much of the debate in the West has focused on provoking “intent.” For example, the crime of genocide, codified in 1948 and referring to the deliberate destruction of a certain group of people, would need prosecutors to show that Mr. Putin’s actions that led to the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians were deliberate. . However, Dr. Smith-Peter says that reading only a few of the materials published by the Russian state media seems to do just that. In February, Russia’s state-run RIA Novosti news agency published and subsequently deleted an article apparently intended to be published as soon as Russia had completed its invasion of Ukraine. “Vladimir Putin has taken, without exaggeration, a historic responsibility by deciding not to leave the solution of the Ukrainian issue to future generations,” said the article, written by his colleague Petr Akopov. “Western world domination can be considered complete and finally over.” This month, the same agency published another article, by expert Timofei Sergeitsev, entitled “What Russia should do with Ukraine” and which some likened to the “final solution” for Ukraine. “War criminals and Nazi activists should be punished exemplary and explicitly,” he said. Residents of Ukraine return to the destroyed village in Chernihiv Mr Zelensky referred to this article when he addressed the Romanian parliament last week. “On the same day, April 3, when people were horrified to see the bodies of the dead in Butsa, an article was published on the website of the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti justifying the genocide of Ukrainians,” he told lawmakers. “His name is very eloquent, I quote ‘What has Russia got to do with Ukraine?’ It’s not just a text. That fact must be taken into account. “ He added: “The article describes a clear and calculated process for the destruction of all that the Ukrainians and our own people are doing.” Dr. Smith-Peter translated and commented on the article in a post on Medium. “The following article contains a Russian plan for the genocide in Ukraine. “It was published by the state news agency RIA Novosti, whose works are often collected by various media,” he wrote. “The author, Timofei Sergeitsev, has been a columnist for RIA Novosti since 2014 and worked as a political adviser to Leonid Kuchma, the former President of Ukraine, during the 1999 presidential election, as well as to the former President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, during the elections of 2004. which led to the Orange Revolution “. He added: “The publication and the source show that this is not a marginal statement, but an expression of a widespread view.” He told the Independent he did not understand why articles in the state media did not attract much attention in the West. “It’s crazy, I keep reading these articles about how difficult it is to show ‘intent,’” he said. “I think it would be very important to publish a translation of this article and say, look, here is the plan for the genocide of the Ukrainian people.” Earlier this month, a Ukrainian-born Holocaust expert told the Independent that he believed the atrocities on the ground in places like Bucha, combined with statements published in stores such as RIA Novosti, showed that what was happening legal description of genocide. “The rhetoric alone was not enough for me and the massacres alone were not enough,” said Eugene Finkel, who lives in Israel and is the author of Ordinary Jews: Choice and Survival during the Holocaust. “The threshold for me is the combination of this violence, widespread and deliberate, and rhetoric. I think that is enough evidence “. Hundreds of people were found shot and killed in small towns like Buha (AFP via Getty Images) Russia has denied that it committed war crimes and claimed that the atrocities in Bukha and elsewhere were organized to make Moscow look ugly. Meanwhile, on Monday, Dr. Smith-Peter and others drew attention to another report on RIA Novosti, which referred to an appearance on Russian Channel One by Eduard Basurin, a spokesman for the Kremlin-backed separatist People’s Republic. of Donetsk. He said Russian forces would have to use chemical weapons when seeking to retake Mariupol, which would represent another war crime. “When you occupy Azovstal in Mariupol, you have to act more cunningly to avoid losses due to the basements. “It is pointless to invade the object,” he said. “It is possible to achieve. “I believe the chemical troops will then find a way to smoke moles from their holes.” Mr Zelensky later referred to comments in the media that chemical weapons had been used. He said any use of chemical weapons would mark a “new stage of terror against Ukraine”. “Unfortunately, we are not getting as much as we need to end this war earlier,” Zelensky said. “I’m sure we will get almost everything we need, but not only is time wasted. “The lives of Ukrainians are being lost – lives that can no longer be returned.”
