"Our existence irritates them": Kuleba explains in Germany that Russia's crimes are genocide

"EUROPEAN PRAVDA" — FRIDAY, 21 OCTOBER 2022, 12:06

Russia's actions and statements prove that it is committing the crime of genocide in Ukraine.

This was stated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, in his speech at a conference on International Law against Genocide, held in Berlin by the Center for Liberal Modernity (LibMod).

Kuleba recalled that Ukraine has already initiated a case against Russia at the International Criminal Court in The Hague in respect of genocide, but he noted that the collection of evidence of this Russian crime is still ongoing.

"We are focusing our efforts on collecting evidence of genocide in Ukraine," he added.

The Minister recalled that the [United Nations] Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948) establishes a clear definition of what constitutes genocide, so Ukraine needs to prove that the perpetrator state, Russia, intends to destroy Ukrainians as an ethnic group in whole or in part. "Why does one nation want to destroy another? Because we are different. And our existence irritates them, " Kuleba said.

He also noted that the abduction of many thousands of Ukrainian children from the territory occupied by the Russian Federation is proof of genocide.

"Even incitement to genocide is a crime, as is the abduction and deportation of children to make them grow up as Russians. And this is exactly what Russia is doing in Ukraine... When Ukrainian children are adopted in Russia, this is done to make our children forget their identity so that they grow up like Russian children. No one is hiding it. This is a systemic phenomenon carried out by the whole state," the foreign minister explained.

"Killing people just because they are Ukrainians, as well as encouraging them [the Russians - ed.] to do so is what the Russian media, the Russian authorities, and Putin personally do... Putin believes that Ukraine has no right to exist. He said that Ukrainians are not a nation, and the Kremlin media repeat this, calling for a ‘final solution to this issue’," Dmytro Kuleba said.

The minister also called on Germany to support the creation of a tribunal on aggression to condemn the Russian leadership, and thanked Berlin for supporting Ukraine in the quest to punish genocide.

European Pravda is an information partner of the International Law against Genocide conference. We invite you to follow its livestream of this event from Berlin.

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