Ukraine in OSCE: russia’s actions fall under definition of genocide crime

russia's actions in Ukraine fall under the definition of the international crime of genocide.

This was stated by the permanent representative of Ukraine to international organizations in Vienna, Yevhen Tsymbalyuk, during a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council, Ukrinform reports.

"Each week of russia's war of aggression brings new and new reports of destruction and death. Last weekend in Ukraine began with russian missile attacks, again targeting critical civilian infrastructure. On that day, October 22, russia launched 36 missiles. According to the Ministry of Energy, russian occupiers damaged up to 40% of Ukraine's energy infrastructure," Tsymbalyuk said.

He also drew attention to reports of the russians mining one of the largest Ukrainian energy facilities — the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant. In the event of its destruction, 80 settlements, including Kherson, could be flooded, and the Zaporizhzhia NPP would be left without water for cooling.

"Increasingly, there are reports of the forced removal of residents, especially children, from the Kherson region. In addition, the russian federation continues to kill Ukrainian children, born and unborn. Two days ago, two people, including a pregnant woman, were killed in Dnipro due to another rocket attack. Also, there is a story of an 8-year-old boy from Bakhmut, whose father and mother, who was seven months pregnant, died during shelling," the ambassador said.

According to him, as of October 26, since the beginning of the full-scale russia's invasion of Ukraine, 430 children have died, and at least 822 children have been injured. And these are not final data since a significant territory is captured by russia.

"At the same time, more and more traces of russian crimes are being discovered in the liberated territories. Currently, 22 torture chambers have been discovered in the Kharkiv region. This is what genocide looks like," the ambassador of Ukraine to the OSCE said.

He recalled how the international convention defines the signs of this terrible international crime: "Killing members of a group; inflicting serious physical or mental injuries on members of a group; intentionally creating living conditions for a group designed for its complete or partial physical destruction; applying measures aimed at preventing births in a group; forced transfer of children from one group to another."

Tsymbalyuk emphasized that russia's actions in Ukraine fall under the definition of this crime. "Deliberate attacks on the critical civilian infrastructure of Ukraine, forced deportation and adoption of Ukrainian children, sexual violence, torture, indiscriminate shelling, etc. — all russia's actions fall under the definition of this crime," he said.

The Ukrainian ambassador pointed out that the trial of Felicien Kabuga for crimes committed during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, which began this fall in The Hague, is a reminder of how dangerous misinformation and incitement to aggressive genocide are.

"The recent case with "Russia Today," whose presenter called on the weekend to "throw Ukrainian children into the river or burn them in the house," is indicative in this regard, but not an isolated one. The top Kremlin propagandists continue to call for the destruction of entire Ukrainian cities," Tsymbalyuk said.