International experts: Forcible transfer of Ukrainians to Russia is genocide

The forcible transfer of Ukrainians from temporarily occupied territories by Russian invaders is genocide.

This is stated in the international legal report "An Independent Legal Analysis of the Russian Federation's Breaches of the Genocide Convention in Ukraine and the Duty to Prevent".

Russia announced that over 1 million people, including more than 180,000 children, had been relocated from Ukraine to Russia since the start of the full-scale invasion, the document says.

Refugees and officials s have reported being transferred by force or the threat of force. According to Ukrainian officials, changes are being made to Russian legislation to expedite the adoption of children from Donetsk and Luhansk regions, while some Ukrainian children deported to Russia will have to take Russian classes.

As noted, the forcible transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia is an act of genocide under Art. II (e) of the Genocide Convention.

"An Independent Legal Analysis of the Russian Federation's Breaches of the Genocide Convention in Ukraine and the Duty to Prevent" is the first report  to address one of the more contentious and consequential questions of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: whether the war is genocidal in character.

The analysis is a project of the New Lines Institute and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, which assembled three teams of experts to assess the subject. This included a team of legal scholars and genocide experts, a second group of open-source intelligence investigators, and linguists who were able to make use of the extensive primary source record this war has already created — of communications intercepts and testimonials.

The experts conclude that Russia bears State responsibility for breaches of Article II and Article III (c) of the Genocide Convention to which it is bound.

The Ukrainian national group is recognized domestically, internationally, and expressly by Russia in formal interstate relations and is thus protected under the Genocide Convention.

States have a legal obligation to prevent genocide beyond their borders once they become aware of the serious risk of genocide (a threshold that this report clearly establishes has been met), of which States cannot now deny knowledge. The Genocide Convention imposes a minimum legal obligation on States to take reasonable action to contribute toward preventing genocide and protecting vulnerable Ukrainian civilians from the imminent risk of genocide.

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