Without punishment of russian criminals for the genocide of the Ukrainian people, we are doomed to repeat it again and again
The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Stefanchuk took part in the national roundtable “Genocide of the Ukrainian nation: russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine”. The event was organised by the Research Institute of Lawmaking and Scientific and Legal Expertise of the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine, the National Association of Researchers of the Holodomor-Genocide of Ukrainians, with the support of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
The meeting was attended by government officials, representatives of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, representatives of the academic community, including lawyers, experts and researchers, and leading figures of Ukrainian society.
Ruslan Stefanchuk thanked the participants for joining the discussion of such an important and urgent topic as the genocide of the Ukrainian nation and its consequences for Ukraine and the entire civilised world.
“Today, we are witnessing how the evil that was unpunished 90 years ago is returning a hundredfold. russia has no other option for coexistence but to commit genocide against our nation. And we have been witnessing this for thousands of years of our coexistence with the russians,” the Chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament said in his opening remarks.
He reminded that in 2023 Ukraine will commemorate the sad anniversary of the 90th anniversary of the Holodomor of the Ukrainian people. But, according to him, history has not taught our neighbour anything. In 90 years, russia has returned to Ukraine to do what it did in those days. After all, “it was precisely for the russian empire that genocide was a normal and acceptable tool for its construction and existence.”
Ruslan Stefanchuk emphasised that russia uses genocide as a method of warfare to control the occupied territories, and not only Ukrainian ones.
“For quite a long time, russia has completely destroyed a number of peoples and small nationalities, subjecting them to genocide: resettlement, deportation, ethnic cleansing,” Ruslan Stefanchuk reminded the audience.
The russian empire and the Soviet Union used more sophisticated tools against Ukrainians, the Chairman of the Parliament of Ukraine noted. He cited the theses from the research of scholars that the destruction of the Ukrainian nation was a classic example of Soviet genocide, its longest and most widespread experiment of russification.
“This experiment consisted of four components. The first was the destruction of the Ukrainian intelligentsia as the brain of the nation. The second was the elimination of the Ukrainian Orthodox Autocephalous Church and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which were the soul of Ukraine. The third is the Holodomor of the Ukrainian peasantry, as the keepers of the tradition of folk music, national language and culture, and national spirit. And the fourth is the fragmentation of the Ukrainian people through the settlement of foreigners in Ukraine and at the same time the dispersion of Ukrainians abroad to destroy the ethnic unity of Ukrainians,” Ruslan Stefanchuk cited the researchers’ theses, stressing that this is exactly the process that the criminal putin regime is carrying out on Ukrainian land today, in the twenty-first century.
In conclusion, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine stressed that without proper punishment of russia as a state that commits genocide of the Ukrainian people, we will not be able to continue to maintain the world order and history has a chance to repeat itself.
“Without punishing russian criminals for the genocide of the Ukrainian people, we are doomed to repeat it again and again. The criminals can and will be punished in this historic period. This is our mission. We must not pass this gestalt on to our children and grandchildren. We must close it, because this is justice. And this justice will be the key to future peace and stability on the European continent!” said Ruslan Stefanchuk.
The Minister of Justice Denys Maliuska focused on the legal aspect of the genocide. According to him, Ukraine has a historic chance to consolidate the fact of the genocide of the Ukrainian nation at the international legal level.
“The legal qualification of the issue of genocide became possible only relatively recently in world history. Let me remind you that genocide, as well as war crimes and crimes against humanity, is within the jurisdiction of the ICC.
It is clear that russia does not recognise the existence of the Ukrainian nation and the Ukrainian state. We are talking about forced russification and replacement of the Ukrainian people. This is their goal. We have to prove this with evidence and facts, provide the maximum amount of documents to the ICC and put an end to any discussions about the legitimacy of this issue,” Denys Maliuska stressed.
He also stressed that Ukraine has a unique legal opportunity to show and prove to the whole world that it is russia that is committing genocide, and putin is leading such efforts.
“There is a fact of genocide that did not begin in 1922. It has much deeper roots, because russia has never viewed Ukraine differently, never treated us differently. It is important to understand this, it must have criminal-legal consequences, sentences or at least arrest warrants for genocide crimes,” the Minister of Justice of Ukraine stressed.
In his speech, the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine Oksen Lisovyi emphasised the consequences of the crime of genocide for the future of Ukraine.
“This crime is complex and multifaceted in its investigation. In fact, its consequences are so immeasurable that scientists, public figures, and activists have work for centuries. It is impossible to estimate the nation’s losses from this crime, because the resource of unborn people cannot be estimated. It is also impossible to assess the consequences for the people who survived this slavery, the destruction of their dignity and life,” said Oksen Lisovyi.
According to him, there are several important aspects of studying and investigating the crime of genocide. In addition to the legal aspect, one of the most important is the educational one, which should lay down the historical memory of descendants about what genocide is, its consequences, and the commemoration of what they have experienced.
“The education system should develop tools that will allow people not only to know about the crimes, not only to understand the facts, figures, events and their sequence. We must give historical memory to young people who must understand the pain that their ancestors experienced. The genocide must be understood by every citizen of Ukraine in their youth and adolescence. And these are also challenges facing teachers today,” said the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine.