Here I contend that although there is no “genocide” being committed by Israel against Gaza or Palestinians as a whole, Russia is committing genocide of the Ukrainians. That the former is loudly touted but false, but the latter is not that newsworthy but is arguably true, shows that the world holds a double standard with regard to “genocide”.
Here I want to concentrate not on Israel’s war with Hamas, which I’ve discussed many times, but on Ukraine, which is being largely ignored by the U.S. (and by Western protestors), and is being mistreated. Indeed, the U.S., with its lifting sanctions on Russian diesel and its threats to withhold intelligence from Ukraine, is beginning to help Russia with this “genocide.”
The UN’s 1948 Genocide Convention defines genocide this way (Article II):
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
The definition requires not only intent to destroy a group, but examples of acts undertaken to fulfill that intent. The arguments against an Israeli “genocide” of Palestinians is not met by either the intent or the actions. Although there are isolated statements by Israeli officials that could be interpreted as intent, the actions of the IDF have been directed at killing the enemy (Hamas) and avoiding wiping out Palestinians as a while. You’ve heard the counterarguments to this: the warning of Gazan civilians by the IDF before strikes, the designation of “safe zones”, the vaccination of 1.1 Gazan children by the WHO and Israel, and so on.
What is Russia doing to Ukraine? Let me count the ways:
The transfer of children from Ukraine to Russia. According to the UN itself, Russia is deporting Ukrainian children on a large scale, amounting to crimes against humanity:
Russian authorities committed the crimes against humanity of deportation and forcible transfer of children, and of their enforced disappearance, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine said in its latest report to the Human Rights Council, which is complemented by a conference room paper.
Thousands of children have been deported to the Russian Federation or transferred to occupied areas in Ukraine by Russian authorities, according to the Commission. It has so far verified the deportation or transfer of over 1,200 children from five regions in Ukraine.
Shortly before the full-scale invasion, the Russian authorities undertook large-scale relocations, which they justified as “evacuations” due to the risks of the armed conflict. But the Commission found that four years later, 80 per cent of the children from the documented cases have not been returned. This contravenes international humanitarian law, under which evacuations can only be temporary for compelling reasons of health, medical treatment or safety.
Mass murder of Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war. One example is the Bucha massacre enacted by Russia soon after it invaded Ukraine in 2022. Over 400 people were executed, and this was documented by the UN Commissioner for Human Rights.
The denial of Ukrainian statehood. This could also be seen as “rhetoric,” but it was not an offhand statement, but a formal speech by Russia’s President Putin in February, 2022. It includes these statements:
“Modern Ukraine was entirely created by Russia, more precisely, Bolshevik, communist Russia. This process began immediately after the revolution of 1917…
“Ukraine never had a tradition of genuine statehood.”
Grok adds this, which speaks to an intent to destroy a “national group”:
Officials and state-aligned figures (including Dmitry Medvedev) have repeatedly denied Ukrainian statehood or identity, with statements calling for the elimination of Ukrainian political independence, language/education in Ukrainian, or the state itself so that “not even ashes remain” or that hostile Ukraine “does not exist anymore.” State media and ideologues have used language of “de-Ukrainization,” “denazification” as erasure of Ukrainian distinctiveness, and eliminationist framing. In occupied territories, authorities have systematically replaced Ukrainian curricula and language instruction with Russian ones, suppressed Ukrainian books/culture, renamed places, imposed Russian citizenship and passports, and promoted Russian patriotic/military education. Human Rights Watch and others have documented forced Russification of education, threats to parents for Ukrainian-language remote learning, and erasure of Ukrainian identity markers. Proponents argue this pattern shows intent to destroy the Ukrainian national group “as such” by eliminating its independent existence and identity, not merely to win a war or change a government.
Widespread and continuous targeting of civilians. Wikipedia has a long article on “Russian attacks on civilians in the Russo-Ukrainian War (2022-present” (see also the article on “War crimes in the Russo-Ukrainian War (2022-present“). I quote from the first article (the site documents the statements):
During the Russo-Ukrainian War (2022–present), the Russian military has continuously carried out deliberate attacks against civilian targets[1][2][3] and indiscriminate attacks in densely populated areas.[4] The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine says the Russian military exposed the civilian population to unnecessary and disproportionate harm by using cluster bombs[5][6][7][8] and by firing other weapons with wide-area effects into civilian areas, such as missiles, heavy artillery shells, and multiple launch rockets.[7] As of 2026, the attacks had resulted in between the UN-documented 16,000[9] and an estimated 40,000 dead civilians.[10] On 22 April 2022, the UN reported that of the 2,343 civilian casualties it had been able to document, it could confirm 92.3% of these deaths were as a result of the actions of the Russian armed forces.[11]
On 5 July 2022, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Michelle Bachelet, reported that most civilian casualties documented by her office had been caused by the Russian army’s use of explosive weapons with wide-area effects in populated areas, calling it “indisputable.”[12] By 30 June 2023, OHCHR assessed that 90.5% of all civilian deaths were caused by such indiscriminate attacks and that 84.2% of them were recorded in Ukrainian-held territory.[l
. . .The deadliest Russian attacks on civilians during the war have been the Mariupol theatre airstrike and the Bucha massacre, which are estimated to have killed hundreds. Other strikes on civilians with high casualties include the April 2022 Kramatorsk railway station attack (which killed 63); 3 March 2022 Chernihiv bombing (which killed 47); the July 2022 Chasiv Yar missile strike (which killed 46), the Zaporizhzhia civilian convoy attack (which killed 32), the 2023 Dnipro residential building airstrike (which killed 46), the 2023 Hroza missile attack (which killed 59), and the 2025 Sumy airstrike (which killed 35 people).[18]
In total, Russia has attacked more than 3000 health care targets,[19] more than 4000 schools and universities,[20] more than 2.5 million housing units,[21] more than 700 churches,[22] and killed more than 15,000 civilians as of February 2026.[23]
There is no similar article on “Ukrainian attacks on civilians in the Russo-Ukrainian war”, but an Al-Jazeera article reports a few:
The war, which began with the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, has seen both sides increasingly targeting civilian infrastructure.
According to an analysis by Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), Russian forces carried out 29,792 attacks on Ukraine in 2022. Of these, 1,635, more than 5 percent, hit civilian infrastructure, including residential, energy, healthcare and education facilities.
By August 2026, the number of Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine had risen to 7,170, representing more than 13 percent of all Russian attacks on the country.
The same ACLED analysis recorded 245 Ukrainian attacks in Russia in 2022, with 24 of those – about 10 percent – targeting civilian infrastructure. By August 2026, that figure had risen to 3,560 attacks, or 27 percent of all Ukrainian attacks in Russia.
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ADAlthough a larger share of Ukrainian attacks targeted civilian infrastructure, Russia carried out far more attacks overall.
Indeed: 24 Ukrainian attacks targeted Russian civilian infrastructure as opposed to 1,635 attacks in the opposite direction: a 65-fold difference. And Russia seems to be stepping up its attacks right now, as I hear of missiles targeting apartment buildings in Ukraine on almost a daily basis. I don’t know anything about accusation that Russia or Ukraine embeds its military among civilians to deliberately jack up the toll of civilians (this is what Hamas does), so I can’t speak to it with regard to this conflict.
The “war crimes” article in Wikipedia starts this way:
During the Russo-Ukrainian war (2022–present) starting with the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian military and authorities have committed war crimes, such as deliberate attacks against civilian targets, including on hospitals, medical facilities and on the energy grid;[1][2][3] indiscriminate attacks on densely populated areas; the abduction, torture and murder of civilians; forced deportations; sexual violence; destruction of cultural heritage; and the killing and torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war.[4][5][6][7]
What happened is clear: Russia believes Ukraine should be a part of Russia, and they invaded to effect that—for at least part of Ukraine. Without that invasion, there would be no war (sound familiar?). Russia continues to attack civilian facilities in Ukraine and Ukraine is defending itself with counterattacks, with the bulk of them targeting Ukrainian military facilities or infrastructure that helps the military. If Russia withdrew, the war would end.
To me, all of this adds up to a Russian genocide, one at least determined to wipe out the “Ukrainian” part of Ukraine. You can argue about whether that is targeting a national group, but clearly some war crimes and crimes against humanity are going on.
My purpose is not to dispel the “genocide” libel against Israel, which is ridiculous, but to show that that label applies far more clearly to Russia in its dealings with Ukraine. I find it disturbing that people in the West, especially the young people who holler about Israel, aren’t at least as concerned with the Russo-Ukraine war. Hamas said it would keep trying to get rid of Israel, which is its primary aim, but Russia is, right now, trying to destroy Ukraine.
Why the relative silence? Well, we know that if Jews are involved they take most of the heat, but the Russia situation is that of an unprovoked invasion that could blossom into further Russian attempts to take over other countries, like the Baltic states. The obligation of the West to defend Ukraine is not diplomatic but moral. It’s not only the right thing to do—defending a democracy besieged by an autocracy—but could nip further Russian ambitions in the bud.
There is something about Ukraine that makes it a permanent target – that I do not understand, perhaps it is agricultural – consider :
“The Holodomor,[a] also known as the Ukrainian famine,[8][9][b] was a massive man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 that killed millions of Ukrainians. The Holodomor was part of the wider Soviet famine of 1930–1933 which affected the major grain-producing areas of the Soviet Union.
Causes : Industrialization policy during the first five year plan ; Dekulakization ; Soviet collectivization of farming
[..]”
N.B. the “First Five-Year Plan” (1928-1932) that entails the infamous propaganda of “[…] 2 + 2 plus the Enthusiasm of the Workers = 5” [..] (Iakov Guminer, 1931)
[all information above obtained from Wikipedia).
It’s strategic. In simple terms, control of Crimean peninsula equates to control of the Black Sea, hence the annexation of Crimea and a land corridor from which the region can be readily supplied.
That’s the primary motive.
Yes, that may be right, but it’s still an ongoing genocide in my view.
Agreed Jerry. The Russian aggression pretty much checks off a through e on the genocide criteria.
Exactly.
My ex wife, an American, born and raised here was Russian and Ukrainian on her mother’s side. At the time, during the 70’s and 80’s I was a believer in Communism, she was not. She didn’t seem to have any animus towards Russia at all but at the same time she always made the point that she was of Russian AND Ukrainian descent. She was proud of both. Putin trying to say that Ukraine doesn’t exist is bull. Ukrainian’s have made that abundantly clear.
This perspective deserves a wider audience than just to WEIT readers. It would be great for this to become a published article.
Agree!
I had the same thought, and this has not been the first time.
Jerry should be a writer for a major news and opinion outlet.
Yes, I completely agree. Meanwhile, we can all send this link far and wide.
And the Chechen wars were extremely brutal and destructive as well.
An enthusiastic second to Comments under #4.
The issue our host brought up brings with it certain further implications. The performative pop-Left now often explicitly supports Islamist terror groups, while remaining silent on the Russian Empire’s genocidal campaign, or blaming that on NATO. What is the Left’s fatal flaw that keeps pushing much of it toward the police state, the latter’s slapstick counterpart in the Associate Dean for DEI, and now, finally, Islamist death cults which worship the 7th century AD? This terminal corruption of Left discourse forces one to take seriously criticism of the Left’s underlying outlook: e.g., the analyses of such thinkers as Roger Scruton, Russell Kirk, Thomas Sowell, and more recently such general writers as Heather MacDonald and Douglas Murray.
I think first and foremost they’re simply anti-Western. And since the West (especially the Western powers) is the Big Bad Evil™, the others are seen as allies or at least as the lesser evil.
It’s a textbook case of ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’.
You are right. Although Russia can be regarded as “white” and even “western” to some degree culturally, Putin is seen as the enemy of the USA and Europe, thus today’s demented Hamasnik Left largely remain silent on Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine – a nation led by a Jewish man. Antisemitism may play a role here as well, including on the Tucker Carlson /Candace Owens nutcase far Right (Reich?).
I agree that a major psychological factor is resentment of West European civilization. This probably stems from daddy issues, plus resentment that academic degrees in fake subjects do not, after all, provide entry into a ruling class. At the intellectual level, the Left’s fatal flaw is a common misunderstanding pointed out by Ernst Mayr: “Equality in spite of evident non-identity is a somewhat sophisticated concept and requires a moral stature of which many individuals seem to be incapable. They rather deny human variability and equate equality with identity.”
1.1 million, not 1.1 (typo)
I am amazed at the courage and tenacity of the Ukrainians. I’m also amazed that so many in Congress are turning a blind eye towards Ukraine, and that our president actively supports the Russians.
Yes indeed. Russia’s war is a paradigmatic example of a genocide.
And the media’s charges against Israel? A paradigmatic example of a lie.
War is indeed hell and civilians are too often collateral damage. Two excellent reasons to retire from conceivable human behavior that strategy for obtaining additional resources. Until we do excise it as an option, innocent people will die, be maimed, lose loved ones, live ruined lives. Emotionally, I think we might consider any war a war of genocide if we identify with the innocents who are the victims of that war. Or if we don’t understand or disagree with what we believe to be the reasons for the war. It’s difficult to create or accept an objective, unemotional definition for genocide when immoral and unnecessary deaths are so much a part of war, an enterprise that is so existentially destructive that its effects ripple out in waves that can become tsunamis on distant shores.
Russia claims Ukrainians belong to them as they are Russians gone astray, whereas Israel claims Palestinians do not belong to them because they do not exist, as they are in fact Arabs. In defence of Russia, one cannot commit genocide against one’s own people. And in defence of Israel, a genocide is impossible if there are lots of people of the same ethnic group left in surrounding countries and (more interestingly) even in one’s own country. The Russian approach is also assimilationist, whereas the Israeli goal is separation with the enemy group being as far apart as possible.
The UN definition is too broad to be useful.
It is clearly genocide, and what is even worse is that if Russia wins, most Russians will be very proud of it.
When you say
“ I find it disturbing that people in the West, especially the young people who holler about Israel, aren’t at least as concerned with the Russo-Ukraine war.”
I disagree… I think that people are concerned. Yes, they aren’t shouting in the streets in solidarity because countries in the West are actively helping Ukraine. Yes, I wish more was done for Ukraine. Yes, unfortunately the US government’s position wrt Ukraine leaves much room for improvement… but in general, and specifically here in Europe a lot is being done in support of Ukraine. Very few people in the West actively defend Russia in this war.
Where are all the UN resolutions about Russian genocide, then? Saying “the US position wrt Ukraine leads much room for improvement” is the understatement of the year. Trump is helping Russia now, and the college kids in the US are absolutely silent on the issue. Where are the boycotts of Russian goods?
If Europe is helping Ukraine, Ukraine is certainly not replete with defensive weapons, either.
Yes, Europe unfortunately has almost no weapons manufacturing. The defensive weapons Ukraine has at the moment are bought from the US with European money. Unfortunately, not nearly enough are being sold by the US.
And Yes, I 100% agree with you, I wish that the college kids in the US would be protesting loudly about many things, starting with the diesel deal between the US and Russia.
And Yes again, a UN resolution on Russia’s war crimes would be great but we all know why there isn’t one, don’t we?
A superb analysis. Ironically Trump might have had a shot at the Nobel if he had fully supported Ukraine and forced Putin to withdraw.
So may European leaders have visited Kiev to show support, from Boris to Macron but no US Presidents.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_visit_by_Joe_Biden_to_Ukraine
Ukraine has managed to defend itself in part by using drones guided by access to Starlink. Along with Trump’s access to Russian diesel, he has ordered Starlink to restrict Ukraine’s access to its services. I don’t doubt the two are connected. This may alter the course of the war.
I wish I could live long enough to see, in the future, when the details of Trump’s connection to Russia are revealed. For someone who claims there is none, as Trump does, he certainly seems to keep doing Putin’s bidding.
The evidence of Isreal’s genocide in Gaza is overwhelming. You cite Wikipedia in the piece above, so look at the “Gaza genocide” page. Or the ‘NAZA’ documentary. The Wiki alone page has 649 references linking to empirical evidence. This isn’t being made up.
I know you’ll probably block me for this, but I’ve been reading this blog for decades and I’ve become increasingly disappointed at your loss of objectivity on this one subject. 73,000 people, 30% of them children, have been killed since 2023, and continually painting it as antisemitic to call that genocide isn’t really cutting the mustard anymore.
I and others have argued at length about why Israel and the IDF is not acting to wipe out Gazans as a group, including sending food, lots of polio vaccine to stop an epidemic, and warning civilians before they strike to allow escape. You cannot explain any of that by assuming Israel is trying to wipe out Gazans, which it could easily do in a week.
The figures you give are from the Gaza Ministry of Health, i.e. Hamas, and “children” are defined as those under 18, many of whom could (and do) include combatants.
The NAZA movie takes none of this into account; see the many rebuttals of that movie, including Natasha Hausdorff’s note that the anonymous soldiers calculating civilian deaths before a strike is precisely what the IDF is supposed to do. You can’t decide whether a strike meets the criteria for proportionality unless you have an estimate of noncombatant versus combatant strikes.
I suggest you read Maarten Boudry’s “They don’t believe it either”: https://maartenboudry.substack.com/p/they-dont-believe-it-either
I’m sorry, but you have no notion of what a “genocide” is, and you have no explanation for Israel’s many actions to mitigate civilian damage. I’d like to hear your explanation of the shipment of a gazillion doses of polio vaccine to Gaza by the WHO and Israel. On second thought, don’t bother.
The only group attempting genocide in Gaza is Hamas. You’re either a terrorist sympathizer, an anti-semite, or both.
While I don’t expect someone who has bought into this disgusting libel to be capable of changing his mind, here is one of many articles with facts that make it clear how very wrong you are: https://maartenboudry.substack.com/p/they-dont-believe-it-either