Genocide of Russians in Ukraine — is it real? (No)

One of the reasons for Russia to attack Ukraine was the alleged genocide of Russians in Ukraine. Is there such genocide? Short answer — no, there’s none. Please read further for more information.

Actually it’s pretty hard to expand on this topic. It’s difficult to prove the non-existence of something, because it relies on the non-existence of proofs. And that’s exactly what we see — there is no proof for this genocide. Russia never tried to pass any convention in the UN about this genocide. OSCE mission did not find any genocidal actions.

Many Ukrainians were surprised that Russia claims there is a genocide of Russians in Ukraine. This sounded too crazy that someone would believe it. However some people do believe it, that’s why I’m writing this.

Proofs

The only proof for this genocide are the talks of Russian propagandists. They often claim that there is such genocide and they repeat it so often, that one might believe it’s true. But even they aren’t consistent. Putin in his February 24th speech mentioned that

There is a genocide of millions of people who rely solely on Russia (Происходит геноцид миллионов людей, которые надеются только на Россию)

However in other talk he mentioned that 14 000 were killed in Donbas. Which is drastically different from a million. However even 14 000 is a lie — and I expanded on it in another article (short recap: this is a total number of deaths in Donbas during conflict in 2014–2021, including military from both sides; last two years 51 civilians died and many of them — from mines and not active shooting).

Russians burned alive

Maybe you heard about May 2nd 2014 Odesa clashes where about 50 pro-Russian people died in fire. It may be portrayed as “Russian people were burned alive”. However this was not a purposeful act of genocide. This was a very unfortunate end of street clashes, when the house where pro-Russian activists entered, caught fire during the Molotov cocktail exchange. The head of Odesa police, who is blamed for not preventing these clashes, fled to Russia-friendly Transnistria (unrecognised republic on the territory of Moldova with Russian troops in it).

There was a similar event on February 18th 2014, when the house in Kyiv with anti-government protesters caught fire. Exact amount of deaths is unknown, only two were confirmed, but the number could be higher (the fire was very strong and would leave no trace of bodies). And no one was talking about anti-Ukrainian genocide after the act.

Let’s use logic

There are quite a lot of ethnical Russians living in Ukraine, but ethnicity is not something you have in your passport or ID card and has no influence on your daily life. There are many mixed marriages and I’m not sure that it’s easy to find ethnically pure Ukrainian — and rarely who cares. Ukrainians often speak Russian, Russians speak Ukrainian. Surnames are too loose indicators of ethnicity. Russians do not live in some isolated communities. In such a mess, if one wanted to start a genocide of Russians, he would have a hard time differentiating Russians from Ukrainians. Usually the only way to figure out the ethnicity of a person is to ask them directly. Sometimes it happened to me that I knew a person for years before finding out he was a Jew.

Even now after the invasion, when Ukrainians often despise Russians, they despise Russians-as-nationality (those who hold Russian passports), not Russians-as-ethnicity (those who have some “Russian blood”). Ethnical Russians can easily be found in Ukrainian army, defending Ukraine from Russians-as-nationality — which often include asian-looking Buryats.

Moreover — why there would be a genocide only in Donbas? How Russians in Donbas would be very different from Russians in Odesa? Shouldn’t those non-Donbas Russians feel some genocidal pressure as well? Isn’t it strange, that people from all over the Ukraine do not welcome Russian invaders, no matter what ethnicity they are? The peculiar thing about this alleged genocide, that it only happens, where there are armed pro-Russian separatists. This can lead to various conclusions, for example that this genocide is caused by the separatists, but truth is — there is no genocide of Russians.

Let’s use math

According to the KIIS research only 6% of population of territories occupied by Russia after February 24th 2022 have positive attitude towards Russia. In general in Ukraine this percentage is lower — only 2%. This is much lower than the number of ethnical Russians living in Ukraine, estimated to be about 20%. Which does not make sense if Russians are indeed oppressed.

Genocide of Ukrainians

The problem with genocide in Ukraine now is that it is actually happening. But the sides are reversed. There are horrible acts caused by Russian soldiers which are revealed on the liberated territories, most famous examples being Bucha and Izyum. Even though Russians deny the facts (while secretly being proud of it, if you read their Telegram channels), they openly say that Ukraine as a nation does not (and should not) exist. You may read the translation of an article “What Russia should do with Ukraine” for more details.

Not only that — it’s Russians bombs and rockets, not Ukrainian ones, that fall on the eastern and southern cities of Ukraine — with large Russian population. Why would Russia bomb their brethren if they really cared about them?

Conclusion

There is no genocide of Russians in Ukraine, no matter how often this lie is repeated by Russian propagandists. There are no proofs, both UN and OSCE did not recognise any acts caused by Ukrainians which could be qualified as a genocide. Ethnical Russians in Ukraine are fighting against Russian aggression. And the only genocide which is happening now in Ukraine is not that of Russians, but by Russians.