– It is obvious to me that what we are seeing in Ukraine is genocide. It’s not just genocidal intentions: it’s genocide in progress, Holtsmark tells Dagbladet.
Emphasize that you are not a lawyer and therefore your assessments may be seen as problematic by some. He is still ready to go:
– That there is an intention of genocide is very clear from the statements of Russian politicians up to Putin himself, says the professor and adds:
– Dmitry Medvedev made it absolutely clear that there is no Ukraine. He says that Kiev is a Russian city, so there is no Ukrainian nationality. This, combined with measures aimed at bringing Ukraine to its knees through terror against the civilian population, means that there is no other word for it than genocide.
– Violently tightened
Holtsmark points out that many believe genocide means an entire people is wiped out.
– But that’s not what’s in the expression. Genocide is the intention to attack a people, a culture, an ethnicity or a language, he believes.
In April, Holtsmark wrote a chronicle in Often with Sigurd Sørlie, where they stressed that the situation in Ukraine could be seen as genocide.
– Since then, the Russian war has escalated quite violently. Now a war is mainly being waged against the civilian population. At the same time, the rhetoric of genocide has intensified and is followed in practice.
– Shocking scale
The biggest changes came after the Russians were pushed back in the areas around Kharkiv and Kherson, the professor believes. The Russians began in earnest to launch large-scale attacks against the civilian population and infrastructure, and similar attacks have since become more numerous.
This is how Putin’s atrocities will be exposed
– The scale was shocking. For the Russians it is about making it completely unlivable, especially in Ukrainian cities now that winter is starting. It’s a very simple line of thinking. They hope to create a humanitarian disaster, which already is. And they hope to create a humanitarian collapse, which will force the Ukrainian government to capitulate.
HEALTH AID: An ambulance worker treats someone injured during the Russian shelling in Kherson, November 24. Photo: AP / Bernat Armangue / NTB
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Last week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the goal of the special operation is not to change Ukraine’s government. Uninteresting, says Holtsmark.
– What the Kremlin says changes from day to day. Over and over again they confirmed that Putin’s statements from the very beginning are firm. This implies regime change in Ukraine. Whether Peskov, Medvedev or others say the opposite is very uninteresting.
– Not genocide
Cecilie Hellestveit, a lawyer and social scientist with a doctorate in international war law, does not believe that the events in Ukraine to date can be described as genocide.
– Starting a war increases the risk of genocide. However, war of aggression is in many ways a more serious crime than genocide, because it strikes more centrally in the international system and causes suffering to millions.
KHARKIV: Body bags line what used to be a civilian procession outside Kharkiv. According to Ukrainian authorities, the column was hit by Russian bombs. Photo: REUTERS/Vitalii Hnidyi/NTB
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He describes that even subjugating a nation, as Russia has declared it would do with Ukraine, would still not be genocide.
– Genocide is a very specific and very narrow crime in the legal sense which particularly affects vulnerable minorities. Attacking another nation and waging war on its population to incorporate the nation into your own state is therefore not genocide. Such use of force is mainly prohibited as assault, illegal annexation and war crimes.
Don’t talk about extinction
Hellestveit also states that it is very common for warring parties to use the term genocide to describe the war crimes of the enemy, without this implying that it is legal genocide.
RT presenter fired after cheating
– There are many different actions that can make it genocidal. But what is the general condition is that the act must be committed with the intention of destroying a group as such, in whole or in part.
– Violent attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks are often interpreted as an attempt by Moscow to force Ukrainians to the negotiating table, not exterminate them, he adds.
The lawyer believes Holtsmark is confusing several issues in his reasoning that the genocide was committed in Ukraine.
– The fact that you have a stated aim to exterminate someone, propaganda-wise, can be an element of the concept of genocide. But it has to be reflected in everything you do. The International Criminal Court in The Hague has the right to investigate the genocide in Ukraine, but has so far not done so, because Russian warfare to date hardly qualifies as genocide in the legal sense.
