There are those who compare Stalin’s famine genocide, which killed millions of Ukrainians in the 1930s, to the cold genocide Putin is trying to inflict in his invasion of Ukraine.
More than a month has passed since the Russian invasion of Ukraine Genocide is a crime, aimed at Russians, began to be openly mentioned in public. Despite French President Emmanuel Macron’s initial reservations, the US president has no doubt he agrees with his Ukrainian counterpart and said Vladimir Putin wants to destroy “even the idea of being Ukrainian”: “The evidence is piling up”, Joe Biden said. Reporters in April.
As the conflict progressed, with no sign of a ceasefire or ceasefire, the Russians and Ukrainians traded accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Since October, Moscow’s strategy has focused, above all, on attacking the energy production and distribution infrastructure, forcing many Ukrainians to live in minimally comfortable conditions, without water, gas and electricity. Is this also a war crime or a crime of genocide, designed to deliberately exterminate the people of Ukraine? Opinions differ.
On CNN Portugal’s Antenna, historian Antonio José Delo acknowledges war crimes in both Moscow and Kiev – though he highlights the difference in the scale of crimes committed, with Russia as the aggressor taking the unfortunate lead. Type of crimes – Genocide is no doubt a crime Also applicable In recent developments in the conflict.
“Everything that has been taken over in Donbas exemplifies the crime of genocide: the mass deportation of the population, the forced adoption of children, the destruction of electricity when there is a temperature that kills people when there is no electricity. Heating is clearly the crime of genocide,” argued the history and international relations expert.
For Antonio José Tello, he declared, “The greatest possible war crime is precisely genocide. And to understand the jungle as a whole, you have to have a vision.” Recalling that not only the President of the United States, but also the Secretary General of the United Nations have already admitted the crimes of genocide in Ukraine, the historian says, naturally, “Russia does not classify itself as a crime of genocide.” Putin’s forces have committed “systematic” crimes that fit this definition: “Every time there is a liberated part of Ukraine, hundreds of thousands of cases are investigated”, it assures. Moscow and Kiev. “One is the aggressor, the other the attacked,” he says succinctly.
Genocide by cold
The government of Ukraine has asserted the thesis that it is attempting genocide by cold in a country with harsh winters, but it is necessary to reexamine the definition of this crime to understand whether it applies.
The term “genocide” was first used in 1944 by the Polish jurist Raphael Lemkin, who used the concept to refer to the Holocaust, but also to earlier situations in which nations, races, or religious groups were exterminated.
Legal expert Paulo Saragoça da Matta explained to CNN Portugal Genocide is a crime It is defined as “elimination of a population group for ethnic, religious or cultural reasons and for the purpose of that elimination”. That is, if there is an indiscriminate slaughter of civilians belonging to a particular race or religion, or cruel, degrading or torturous acts resulting in death, the crime in question is not genocide, as it must be, there must be “intent”. That elimination”, emphasized the expert. “This is not a quantitative measure, we could have a million dead and not commit genocide. It’s not a matter of size, it’s a question of the deliberate, planned elimination of a group,” explained Zaragoza da Mata.
Despite the “relatively fluid” criteria that require a rigorous evaluation of the evidence to move forward with a conviction for genocide, Francisco Pereira Coutinho, an expert in international law, has little doubt that the Ukrainian electricity grid could be destroyed. Effectively built into this type of offense: The answer is no. “For me, the big question is whether this qualifies as a war crime,” he argues. “Electrical installations are also used for military purposes, and it is important to understand whether the attack was only intended to cause damage to civilians,” he explains.
Pereira Coutinho agrees: it can be argued that the destruction of this energy infrastructure is a war crime “If it affects an installation that has no military use and a part of the electrical infrastructure, there must be direct damage to civilians, for example, if a hospital is without electricity,” he clarifies. An attack that causes a blackout in a non-conflict area of the country can also be classified as an attack on the population, and allows for the classification of a war crime – that’s what we’re talking about. This case protects an expert in international law.
Pereira Coutinho also recalled that genocide refers to the attempt to exterminate a specific people, so “it is debatable that this is Russia’s intention: according to Putin’s speech, not even Ukraine, they are all Russians. They are going to try. Exterminate themselves?” he asks.
Holodomor after Holodomor
The Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court (ICC) and was adopted in 1998, has jurisdiction to try four crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression. But to date, few crimes have been classified as genocide by the Organs’ judicial bodies, exemplified by the 1994 killing of the Tutsi ethnic group in Rwanda, which resulted in approximately 800,000 deaths, as well as the massacre in the Bosnian city of Srebrenica. It ended in 1995 with the deaths of over 8,000 Muslim men and boys.
In the case of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the International Criminal Court’s Rome Statute, which “more precisely” provides for the crime of genocide, does not apply because neither Russia nor Ukraine has adhered to the treaty. “We should seek the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which is a little more comprehensive, less specific,” he adds. Is genocide taking place in Ukraine due to the cold? Convicted Penalist: “I have no doubt”.
Zaragoça da Matta explains the explanation: “When I harm the infrastructure of a country, it is obvious that I harm that country’s war effort, that country’s defense effort. But it does not disappear from my knowledge and my will. More importantly, it does not disappear from my intention, it is necessary – that’s why This is called necessary intent – to cause the death of hundreds of thousands of civilians”, the legal expert clarifies. “If I want to kill A, but I know that by killing A I kill B, C and D, I have the necessary motive for all killing”, he asserts.
Zaragoça da Matta recalled the Holodomor, “a Russian conspiracy to exterminate Ukrainians by starvation, all grain was burned or seized and transported to Russia”, to compare it to what is now described as the Kolodomor, a cold death. “This is not the first time something like this has happened in Ukraine,” he insists, specifically referring to the “Great Famine,” a general hunger crisis in Ukraine during Stalin’s Soviet communist rule in the early 1930s. Draw a parallel with genocide and the Holocaust.
For Paulo Zaragoça da Matta, there is no doubt that there is evidence to bring to trial the crimes of genocide, war and crimes against humanity committed by the Russians in Ukraine. “Whether there will be a conviction is another matter, but there is clearly enough evidence,” he insists. Returning to Genocide: “Any act which directly or indirectly leads to the death, violation of physical integrity and the destruction of a group, in this case the nationality, I am already genocide, as long as there is an intention to cause death or violation of physical integrity in relation to a racial, national or ethnic group, whatever it may be, if the intent is intentional. I would say let’s talk about conduct,” concludes the judge.
Even Pope Francis, at the end of an audience in St. Peter’s Square last Wednesday, invoked Stalin’s “terrible genocide” to talk about the “sacrifice” Ukrainians will relive, so the parallels between the two episodes are increasingly apparent. Doesn’t stop being pointed out.
A quarter of the Ukrainian population is powerless
In recent months, the European Commission has been working with its member states to provide equipment to Ukraine that would allow it to repair and operate infrastructure targeted for Russian attack. The European Parliament, for example, launched a campaign to collect power generators and transformers in EU cities to help Ukrainians this winter: Last week, Ukrainian officials said more than 10 million people, more than a quarter of Ukraine’s population, were without power.
Cuts – due to emergencies or equipment damage – in electricity, gas and water supplies have intensified in recent days, just as temperatures begin to drop below zero degrees and snow begins to fall in many areas. Winters in Ukraine are long and harsh. Energy distribution companies admit that places are using more energy than they can produce, encouraging Ukrainians to spend the winter outside the country, if they can, and the energy cuts should be extended until next. March.
Last Wednesday, another wave Russian attacks Targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure, it left 70% of Kyiv without power and caused blackouts in neighboring Moldova, forcing 50% of the national electricity grid to be reconnected. Places like Kiev, Lviv, Kremenchuk, Poltava or Mykolayiv were also hit: from Lviv, there were reports of total power cuts, which were later added to cuts in water supply.
Although most of the energy consumed in Ukraine is produced precisely here, because of the Moscow attacks, all reactors in the country’s nuclear power plants must be disconnected from the external grid, according to Energoatom, which manages the nuclear power grid. On Thursday, as the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was reconnected to the Ukrainian power grid, Energoatom head Petro Kodin issued a warning: “There is a real risk of a nuclear and radiological catastrophe.”
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