Apparent atrocities committed by Russia in Ukraine 'as genocide as it gets,' expert says

• Eugene Finkel, a genocide scholar, tweeted that Russia's apparent actions in Bucha are "as genocide as it gets."
• The Russian invasion "did not start with clear genocidal intent, but evolved into" a genocide, he wrote.

Russia has indisputably committed genocide in Ukraine, according to a respected expert on genocide and political violence.

"As a genocide scholar I am an empiricist, I usually dismiss rhetoric. I also take genocide claims with a truckload of salt because activists apply it almost everywhere now. Not now. There are actions, there is intent. It's as genocide as it gets. Pure, simple and for all to see," Eugene Finkel, an associate professor with Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, tweeted on Monday.

Finkel's tweets came after horrifying images emerged from Bucha, a suburb near Kyiv, that was recently recaptured by Ukrainian forces. Roughly 300 civilians were killed, with many buried in mass graves, according to Bucha's mayor. Some of the dead were found with their hands tied behind their backs, and bodies were left scattered in the streets.

According to Finkel, Russia's apparent actions in Ukraine qualify as genocide for two reasons: "1. Evidence over the weekend that Bucha is not an isolated incident and that it was done intentionally. 2. Rhetoric coming out Russia, including official outlets. It denies that Ukraine should exist as [a] national entity and that ordinary people need to be punished."

Finkel said the Russian invasion "did not start with clear genocidal intent, but evolved into one."

"Regime change and colonial subjugation are by themselves not enough to constitute genocide," he added.

The genocide scholar said he resisted applying the term to Russia's actions until Monday morning, adding, "What changed is the combination of more and more evidence, from different places, and even more importantly, explicit official rhetoric."

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly suggested that Ukraine is not a real country, including in an ahistorical speech just days before Russia began the full-scale invasion in late February. The Russian leader also justified Russia's unprovoked war, in part, by claiming that Ukraine was led by neo-Nazis. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish and lost family in the Holocaust, underscoring the farcical nature of Putin's claims.

Russia has repeatedly targeted civilian areas throughout the war, employing the same brutal tactics it relied on in conflicts in Chechnya and Syria. Over 1,400 civilians have been killed in the war so far, but the actual figures are likely significantly higher, according to the UN.

Human Rights Watch on Sunday said it had documented several cases of Russian forces committing war crimes against civilians in occupied areas of the Chernihiv, Kharkiv, and Kyiv regions of Ukraine. The cases included instances of rape, summary executions, and other forms of unlawful violence and threats against civilians.

"The cases we documented amount to unspeakable, deliberate cruelty and violence against Ukrainian civilians," Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. "Rape, murder, and other violent acts against people in the Russian forces' custody should be investigated as war crimes."

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba at a press conference in Warsaw on Monday said the "horrors that we have seen in Bucha are just the tip of the iceberg of all the crimes that have been committed by the Russian army."

"I can tell you without exaggeration, with great sorrow, that the situation in Mariupol is much worse compared to what we have seen in Bucha and other cities, towns, and villages nearby Kyiv," Kuleba added.

Zelenskyy: 'Indeed, this is genocide'

Leaders across the globe have accused Russia of committing war crimes in Ukraine. The Russian government, for its part, has firmly rejected these allegations. Moscow has responded to the outcry over the civilians killed in Bucha by denying any involvement in the massacre and pushing conspiracy theories — claiming that the disturbing images that have emerged out of the Kyiv suburb are fabricated.

President Joe Biden on Monday declined to describe Russia's actions as genocide, but once again called Putin a war criminal and called for him to be brought to trial.

National security advisor Jake Sullivan echoed this view. "We have seen atrocities. We have seen war crimes. We have not yet seen a level of systematic deprivation of life of the Ukrainian people to rise to the level of genocide," Sullivan told reporters on Monday.

Zelenskyy, however, has explicitly accused Russia of genocide.

"Indeed, this is genocide," Zelenskyy said in an interview on CBS's "Face the Nation". "The elimination of the whole nation and the people. We are the citizens of Ukraine we have over 100 nationalities. This is about the destruction and extermination of all these nationalities."

Poland's Prime Minister Morawiecki also accused Russia of genocide over the atrocities in Bucha.

"Genocide" is a politically charged term with varying interpretations and definitions.

Raphael Lemkin, a lawyer of Polish-Jewish origin, coined the term "genocide." Lemkin defined genocide as "a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves." He also wrote that genocide "does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation."

The UN defines genocide as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group."

Finkel in his tweets said the UN or legal definition is "problematic" because it doesn't offer clear thresholds, but went on to say it still "fits like a glove" in the case of Russia's actions in Ukraine.